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Valkyrie re-establishes the gold standard
By Tempus | 2 September 2019 | Wealth,
Tempus explores the new Valkyrie Ambassador Card, milled from solid gold and designed to be the most secure card on the planet
In an unassuming red brick building in the heart of London’s Mayfair, exists a company that works beneath the surface to protect and power some of the UK’s most important companies – and the individuals that run them.
Unlike the see-to-be-seen high-end restaurants and designer boutiques that neighbour its headquarters, leading security firm Valkyrie operates under the radar, but what it (purposefully) lacks in exposure, it exudes in expertise.
Valkyrie assists major security firms across the globe with specialist security measures – including electronic countermeasures (better known as ‘bug sweeping’) and physical and electronic penetration testing – for UK and international corporations, HNW individuals, and their family offices. Impressively, Valkyrie is also responsible for supplying and securing a number of the UK’s most sensitive buildings, including The Houses of Parliament.
“Valkyrie punches well above its weight in a number of areas, due mainly to an exceptionally talented team which I am lucky enough to head up,” says managing director David Webb. “Most of our team is drawn from the UK special forces and intelligence community, which means we can count on significant and relevant experience in the field and combine this with practical solutions in the commercial environment.”
Webb spent 16 years serving in Britain’s elite 22 SAS, before heading up Valkyrie’s formidable team. “Valkyrie breaks the mould when it comes to modern security thinking. We look at any problem from a number of perspectives to provide a 360 ̊ solution that goes beyond tackling the obvious threat to provide a holistic and integrated or, as I like to say, ‘joined-up’ solution,” he says.
Since its inception in 2010, Valkyrie has built up an impressive reputation with a list of clients who look to the firm for a diverse range of products and services, all designed to help protect them and mitigate risk in both their domestic and business environments. >>
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Webb explains that trust is the foundation of Valkyrie’s success and it has inspired them to develop products that go beyond the areas traditionally associated with run-of-the-mill security firms. The state-of-the-art technology, applied by people with years of training and experience at the highest levels of the security services, is what gives Valkyrie its edge.
It is this demand for practical yet highly secure products for everyday use that inspired Valkyrie’s newest development: the Valkyrie Ambassador Card programme. Now in its prototype development stage, the payment card already looks set to become the world’s most secure card, designed for use by a global elite.
Fashioned from solid 18-carat gold, the Valkyrie Ambassador Card firewalls its clients’ bank accounts, protecting them from direct attack through cloning or skimming. The card cannot be scanned and can only be read in a Point of Sale (POS) machine with highly secure chip and PIN.
Another interesting feature is the signature, which is engraved onto the back of the card, making fraudulent misuse very difficult. The card clears in more than 120 currencies worldwide, so is perfectly suited for the international traveller with bespoke fraud prevention-built in. The Ambassador Card has been designed to directly meet the demands of a highly mobile HNW community that is exhausted with constant fraud checks on their standard plastic bank cards, which can often cause delays and embarrassment.
“The card was inspired by a request from a private bank which wanted us to design a bespoke card for their clients, the majority of whom are billionaires,” Webb explains. “The decision was made to produce the card in solid gold or platinum and to build in a number of physical and electronic security features that will make the card the most secure card on the planet.”
With each card made-to-order, availability of Ambassador Cards is limited but with this, Valkyrie clients will be confident that when it comes to their card, all that glitters really is gold – solid gold.