Three leading vendors ARM, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient are forming a joint venture to accelerate the adoption of a common security standard for services on connected devices including smartphones and tablets. The aim is to encourage greater use of mobile devices for payments, banking applications and enterprise productivity as well as online commerce and premium content services. In addition to mobile devices, the venture’s work will cover smart TVs and games consoles.

ARM will own 40 percent of the joint venture with the two other partners each holding 30 percent.  The CEO is Ben Cade who is currently the VP and general manager of ARM’s secure services division. The venture, which is subject to regulatory approval, will base its development on established solutions from the three partners who will all make contributions to the venture including patents, software, staff, cash and capital equipment. Both Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient are long-standing ARM partners.

The companies say they will develop what they describe as a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) based on ARM’s existing TrustZone security technology. The TEE will use advanced hardware security combined with industry software interfaces, such as those from the GlobalPlatform industry association.