ACS Solutions Shortlisted in Smart Awards Asia 2015

April 14, 2015

HONG KONG, 14 April, 2015 - Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), Asia Pacific's top supplier and one of the world's top 3 suppliers of PC-linked smart card readers (Source: Frost & Sullivan), is a finalist for the Best Loyalty Program and Best Payment Innovation categories in Smart Awards Asia 2015.

ACS’s entry for Best Loyalty Program is e-PLUS Tap to Pay, an end-to-end loyalty and payment system for the biggest mall operator, developer, and retail company in the Philippines. e-PLUS is a powerful platform for loyalty because it unifies a comprehensive range of merchants and service providers under one system. For consumers, this means exposure to more options and benefits, making the search for the most competitive goods and services easier. For merchants, this means wider reach, as they have a convenient way to offer perks to a broader customer base.

The system also provides merchants and service providers with on-demand access to data. Such data include customer demographics, transaction times, and so forth. Access to such information can yield insight on how to improve future loyalty programs and other business activities.

Meanwhile, ACS’s entry for Best Payment Innovation is the Abiria Card, a stored value contactless smart card, loaded with e-money and used to pay fares for public transport in Kenya. One of the innovative features of the Abiria Card is the deferred-reloading function, which serves as an additional top-up channel for fare cards (the other one being the physical brick-and-mortar reloading center). Through the deferred-reloading function, commuters can top up fare cards anytime and anywhere using mobile money.

Deferred reloading is important because it makes the transition from cash-based to electronic payments painless for commuters. Mobile money is a fixture among Kenyans, even among the poor. By choosing a prevalent feature of enabling top-ups in daily life, the system is able to deliver smart card‒based solutions to a wider segment of society. Deferred reloading is also a workaround to the relatively underdeveloped reloading infrastructure in Kenya.

Smart Awards Asia 2015 is an annual event that honors excellence in the card, payment, and retail industries. It is organized by Terrapin, a company that has been organizing business events globally for over 25 years. Winners will be announced on 22 April 2015.

“ACS solutions are increasingly being recognized in the international arena,” says Gilbert Leung, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing. “The recognitions we receive are proof that we are serving customers and contributing to communities in an innovative and sustainable manner. We have yet another reason to further improve our technologies and solutions.”

For more information on ACS solutions, email [email protected] or visit www.acs.com.hk.

About ACS

Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), founded in 1995, is Asia Pacific's top supplier and one of the world's top 3 suppliers of PC-linked smart card readers. ACS is the winner of the Product Quality Leadership Award for Smart Card Readers from Frost & Sullivan. In 2010 and 2014, ACS was listed in Forbes Asia's “Best Under a Billion", an inter-industry list comprised of 200 top-performing publicly listed companies in the Asia-Pacific, with sales between US$5 million and US$1 billion. ACS develops a wide range of high quality smart card reading/writing devices, smart cards and related products and distributes them to over 100 countries worldwide. Visit ACS at https://www.acs.com.hk/.