Deutsche Telekom : New partner for identification platform Verimi

• Giesecke+Devrient becomes new shareholder
• Pre-version of product tested in piloting phase
• Shareholder agreement signed in Berlin

The new European identification, registration and data platform Verimi welcomes further support: Giesecke+Devrient (G+D), world market leader for the validation of payment transactions, identification, connectivity and data becomes a new shareholder. Donata Hopfen, CEO of Verimi, said: 'With Giesecke+Devrient we are happy to welcome a new partner on board that brings a high level of expertise in the areas of payment transactions and security technologies.' Only in August, the Bundesdruckerei, Deutsche Lufthansa, and Deutsche Telekom had joined as new shareholders.

'Customers making a payment transaction or identifying themselves want to trust the security of technology and data. However there is still no secure and transparent standard available,' says G+D CEO Ralf Wintergerst. 'As a leading provider of security technology, we are happy to add our expertise to close this gap together with Verimi.'

Giesecke+Devrient will become the tenth shareholder of Verimi. The others include Allianz, Axel Springer, Bundesdruckerei, Core, Daimler, Deutsche Bank with Postbank, Deutsche Telekom, HERE Technologies and Lufthansa. The joining of G+D is subject to the acceptance from the committees and the competent antitrust authorities.

The new shareholder will be announced today at an event in Berlin, where leading executives from all partners will meet to sign the shareholder agreement.

Christian Sewing, President of Deutsche Bank: 'Through its online identification and payments services, Verimi provides a great opportunity for all companies involved to be relevant for their clients on a day-to-day basis. Following our launch in Germany we have plans to rapidly add new partners across Europe.'

Donata Hopfen said: 'This is a very special day for us. With the final signing of the agreements, we are getting a big step closer to realizing the vision of a European and open identity platform across multiple industries.'

The growing pool of shareholders from internationally leading companies shows that the Verimi idea of offering an alternative to the big platform economies resonates very well. In spring 2018 the company will go to market with its first product, the so-called Single-Sign-On (register once centrally, log in everywhere). From the start, Verimi will adopt the requirements of the EU data protection regulation (GDPR) and support the ePrivacy Regulation with the most advanced technology. In Germany, the platform will be the first one capable to integrate the electronic ID-card along with the citizen account functionalities. To enable this, the company is currently in close cooperation with the relevant authorities.

After Verimi conducted a series of hackathons on the connection of the software interfaces, the company has been running a first piloting phase with a usability test of a pre-version of the product since early December. Within a closed user group, the user experience is being tested. Participants of this test are, for example, Deutsche Bank, Bundesliga football club Eintracht Frankfurt as well as start-ups such as the successful Fin-Tech company Weltsparen. Further tests will follow prior to the market launch.

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