De La Rue SIPS 500 Delivers Fully Integrated Passport and ePassport Personalisation

News Release : 24 May 2007

De La Rue Identity Systems announces the SIPS™ 500 series - a unique, automated passport personalisation solution. The SIPS 500 series complements De La Rue's range of passports and ePassports, MIDIS™ flexible issuing system and unique MLIS™ and SHIELD™ secure laminates, providing governments with a one-stop-shop for the latest end-to-end integrated secure passport and ePassport solutions. The SIPS 500 (for ICAO standard machine readable passports) and the SIPS™ 500e (for ePassports) have been developed with De La Rue's experience of over 50 successful secure government identification schemes and state-of-the-art research and development.

The flexible, modular design of SIPS 500 and SIPS 500e enables governments to choose a system perfectly suited to national requirements. It can be integrated with the MIDIS issuing system or governments' existing technologies. The full range of passports, from machine readable 32-page books up to 64-page ePassports, can be handled and personalised automatically, to produce up to 60 finished documents per hour. For ongoing efficiency and minimised support costs, SIPS 500 offers ease of access, low maintenance and a simple upgrade path. SIPS 500 also offers a new standard in security for both conventional and ePassports. Sophisticated tracking and audit control features ensure that secure personalisation film and passports are recorded and tracked as the passport moves through the system. This provides the reassurance that every passport a government issues is a unique document, properly assigned to the correct individual.

Paul Wilson, Managing Director of De La Rue Identity Systems, and a keynote speaker at the Security Document World Conference in London on May 23 explains why the SIPS 500 series is a key development,

"Governments are looking for reliable, proven passport and ePassport solutions that will deliver the improvements demanded of today's travel documents in terms of security, readability, verification and quality. In one machine SIPS 500 provides integrated technologies to meet all these requirements backed by De La Rue's expertise in secure identity management and proven secure documents and issuing systems".

For further information, please contact:

David Landsman,
International Affairs Adviser
De La Rue Identity Systems
+44 (1256) 605052
Identity.Systems@uk.delarue.com

SIPS 500™, MLIS™, SHIELD™ and MIDIS™ are trademarks of De La Rue International Limited.