IDEMIA collaborates with Qualcomm to boost offline CBDC payments

By Gloria Methri

IDEMIA Secure Transactions (IST), a division of IDEMIA Group, has announced joint efforts with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to enable users to make and receive offline CBDC payments on smartphones securely.

IDEMIA provides payment and connectivity solutions for financial institutions, mobile network operators, and automotive manufacturers. It has established itself as a specialist in secure payment solutions for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

IDEMIA Secure Transactions thus enables users to make secure payments with the device of their choice, from traditional bank cards, biometric cards, and wearables to feature phones, smartphones, or connected watches.

In previous projects with central banks, IDEMIA Secure Transactions has already demonstrated offline CBDC on a variety of payment devices. This new project demonstrates offline payment protocol and the handling of associated credentials by an integrated secure element already available on users’ phones.

By joining forces with Qualcomm Technologies, IST will enable manufacturers to allow millions of users to make offline payments with CBDCs via their smartphones. This is done via the Qualcomm® Secure Processor Unit (SPU), a highly secure computing environment integrated into the Snapdragon 8 series.

The Snapdragon 8 Mobile Platform1, together with IST’s solution, makes it possible to deploy offline CBDC on a smartphone equipped with that chip dynamically in the field easily and seamlessly.

True to our commitment to making secure offline CBDC work anywhere, anytime and for everyone, we are very proud to collaborate with Qualcomm Technologies, one of the world’s most innovative companies,” said Jerome Ajdenbaum, VP of Digital Currencies at IDEMIA Secure Transactions. This new payment solution underlines IDEMIA Secure Transactions’ ability to marry frictionless deployment with ever more secure technologies, with the primary aim of making users’ lives easier. We are looking forward to working with central banks and the mobile OEMs to deploy these solutions all around the world

Asaf SHEN, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., said, “Leveraging the Qualcomm SPU on the Snapdragon 8-series Mobile Platforms helps to make offline CBDC payments more secure and allows for easy integration for OEMs. In fact, the smartcard certification achieved for SPU means it is resistant to attacks performed by an attacker possessing High attack potential, which is the highest level.”