TSSI’s DeedMark™ Security Foil now protects up to 455 million Chinese banking customers from counterfeiting and fraud.

TSSI Systems, the document and personal identity specialist, recently announced that five major Chinese banks are now using its DeedMark™ security technology to protect their bank passbooks.

This development, made through the company’s Chinese joint venture, Shenzhen TSSI Systems, means that China Construction Bank, China Communication Bank, Guangdong Development Bank, China Industrial Bank and the Agriculture Bank of China can now prevent counterfeiting and fraud and protect their approximately 455 million customers.

DeedMark is part of TSSI’s suite of machine-readable technologies that enables the authentication of genuine documents and detects counterfeits. Complementing holograms and other overt security features, DeedMark is hot-foiled or hot-rolled onto paper documents. Each DeedMark-protected item gets a permanent identity (i.e., a number) that cannot be copied, altered or erased. The foil fractures if attempts are made to remove it.

DeedMark seals are authenticated by hand-held readers which link to a database – a process that allows individual documents or products to be traced through their life cycle.  Supplied as a roll of foil, suitable for application by standard high speed hot foiling or hot-roll equipment, each DeedMark roll contains either incrementing unique numbers for individual item tracking or a batch number for proving authenticity. The number embedded in the foil is displayed when bank passbooks, for example, are swiped thought the reader, indicating the foil as genuine.

The DeedMark foil is initially manufactured at TSSI's premises in the UK before being sent to Shenzhen TSSI Systems for slitting and assembly into bank passbooks. To enhance the aesthetic appearance of a document, the foil is available in black, silver, gold and color shift.

TSSI formally established its joint venture in China in October 2007. According to Stewart Hefferman, COO of TSSI, “TSSI is delighted with what it has achieved in China in a relatively short period of time. While it took a considerable amount of time to set up the joint venture the market opportunity is massive, and is already paying dividends.”