Smartmatic, Cross Match bag Mexico's national registry deal

MEXICO CITY – Smartmatic, a leading supplier of security and election solutions, and partner Cross Match Technologies Inc. were selected by the Secretaría de Gobernación de México (Secretariat of Governance, SEGOB) to supply new technologies to improve and safeguard the national registry. 

The SEGOB purchased 2000 PARkits units that will be used for the registration of fingerprints, iris, facial features and signatures of more than 100 million Mexican citizens.

The SEGOB purchased the equipment for $23 million.

Smartmatic will supply the architecture of the solution, which includes portable computers, peripherals and software. It will also be responsible for the integration of the systems, training and first-level support for the end-users.

Cross Match, for its part, will provide the advanced hardware and software for fingerprint and iris capture.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by the Mexican government and are committed to providing them and countries throughout the globe with the necessary technology to create secure, accurate and transparent citizen enrolment programs,” said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic CEO. 

Cross Match’s capture systems that the Mexican government selected are the same family of devices currently in use by the United States Immigration Department in US airports as part of the US VISITS program.

“We are very proud our solution was selected by the Mexican government. The fact that countries are turning to biometric identification solutions more and more is a testament to our success in enabling citizens to verify their identities,” said Jim Grau, Cross Match president and CEO.

After the SEGOB announced in 2009 its plans to update the National Population Register in Mexico and create a new national identity card with biographical and biometric information, 51 companies entered the bidding process.

The solution of Smartmatic and Cross Match was chosen for the first phase of the voter registration based on its superior technological and financial offerings. 

Smartmatic is a multinational company that designs and deploys technological solutions aimed at helping governments fulfill, in the most efficient way, their commitments with their citizens.

It is one of the largest cutting-edge technology suppliers, with a wide and proven experience in the US, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Smartmatic is responsible for several top and advanced innovations available in the market around three business areas: auditable voting systems, intelligent and integrated security platforms, and advanced solutions for people registration and authentication.