Draft:Keesing Technologies

Keesing Technologies is a SaaS company that offers solutions for ID document and banknote authentication. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and is a subsidiary of the French IN Groupe. Keesing’s current managing director is Jan Lindeman. The company was founded in 1911 by Isaac Keesing jr. under the name Systemen Keesing.

History
Systemen Keesing initially offered subscriptions to Keesing’s Financial Archives, which gave subscribers access to a collection of economic, financial and stock exchange data. Soon after, the company broadened its scope and published many more periodicals and books. In 1930 the company published a series of puzzle books titled Denksport (Mind sports), which is still available today. The puzzling activities of Systemen Keesing continue to this day under the name Keesing Media Group.

In 1923, the foundations for Keesing's activities in banknote and document verification were laid. Karel Henri Broekhoff, in charge of falsifications at the Dutch National Bank, asked Keesing to publish the periodic bulletin issued by the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC, later known as Interpol). The bulletin was meant for exchange offices, banks, and police dealing with counterfeit money and cheques. Keesing agreed, and started to publish the periodical under the name Contrefaçons et Falsifications (Counterfeits and Forgeries). Contrefaçons et Falsifications consisted of two parts: a primary part showing forgeries, and a secondary part showing original banknotes and coins from a wide range of countries (158 countries in 1969). The editorial team was based in Paris and consisted of Interpol officers. The design, printing and exploitation was organized from Keesing’s office in Amsterdam.

After the Franc Affair in 1925, when false banknotes were discovered in Den Haag, the Dutch government saw the need for a Dutch version of the publication. The first Dutch-language version of Contrefaçons et Falsifications was published in April 1926. Later on, Isaac Keesing invented a detection system to identify false banknotes and coins.

The publication Contrefaçons et Falsifications always had the “highest priority within the company” stated Leo Keesing, Isaac's son who took over the company after his father died in 1966 : “When we get a message from Paris, we stop the presses and hold everything else.” Due to the exclusive collaboration with Interpol, Keesing was the only publisher that published a periodical of this kind. As such, Keesing had become an “indispensable link in the chain that helped authorities to fight counterfeiting”.

In 1986, on the 75th anniversary of the company, Contrefaçons et Falsifications was published in English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic, and had a circulation of 15.000 copies in 150 countries.

Identity verification
In the 1980s, under the leadership of Simon Keesing, Isaac's grandson, the company entered the world of ID verification. Keesing started publishing books about ID documents. The books were similar to Contrefaçons et Falsifications. They showed passports acquired by the original issuer, and forgeries that were discovered by authorities. In order to provide realistic depictions of the documents, they built a heavily secured printing plant that could print in five colours.

In 1997, Keesing's identity and banknote verification activities were moved to a new company: Keesing Reference systems. This company would later become Keesing Technologies. In 1999, the company made a comprehensive ID document and banknote reference database available online. From 2004 to 2019, the company published the Keesing Journal of Documents and Identity, a bi-monthly print journal covering a wide range of topics concerning document and banknote authentication.

During the 2000s, Keesing Technologies transformed from a publisher to a software and service provider, offering an extensive banknote and ID document database, and a digital ID verification solution with a biometric verification option. In 2010, Keesing Technologies was acquired by the French company Surys. In 2019, IN Groupe announced the acquisition of both Surys and Keesing.