Draft:Keesing Technologies

Keesing Technologies

Industry	Software as a service
Predecessor	Systemen Keesing
Founded	August 1, 1911 (1911-08-01) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Founder	Isaac Keesing Jr.
Headquarters	Amsterdam , The Netherlands
Website	keesingtechnologies.com

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.

History

Keesing Technologies was founded in 1911 by Isaac Keesing jr. under the name Systemen Keesing.

Isaac Keesing used to work as a journalist. To help him write his articles, he created an index card system to archive and retrieve information that he collected from a wide range of national and international sources. Keesing’s financial archive became popular among fellow journalists and later among financial institutions as well. When he realized it was a business model, he started his own company. On 1 August 1911,  the day he turned 25, Isaac started his company Systemen Keesing with a starting capital of 560 guilders (€254) borrowed from his father.

Initially, the company offered subscriptions to Keesing’s Financial Archives. Subscribers were given access to a collection of economic, financial, and stock exchange data. Apart from that, subscribers received daily newsletters with financial-economic information, which Isaac initially printed in his own living room.  

From there on, Keesing broadened its scope and expanded internationally. He established offices in Brussels, London and Paris and published more titles. Among the periodicals published by Systemen Keesing throughout the years are titles like Jong Nederland (1916-1932), Keesing’s Medical Archive (1930-1985),  Keesing’s Historical Archive (1931-2013) and Contrefaçons et Falsifications. Keesing also created a series of puzzle books titled Denksport (Mind sports). Denksport was first published in 1930 and is still available today.

Contrefaçons et Falsifications

In 1923, Karel Henri Broekhoff, who was in charge of falsifications at the Dutch National Bank, approached Keesing to take over and publish a periodic bulletin issued by the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC, later known as Interpol), providing information for exchange offices, banks, and police dealing with counterfeit money and cheques. Keesing agreed, and not long thereafter, Keesing published the first edition of Contrefaçons et Falsifications (Counterfeits and Forgeries). Contrefaçons et Falsifications consisted of two parts: a primary part with forgeries, and a secondary part with banknotes and coins that were in circulation in 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. In an interview with the IJmuider Courant in 1961, Isaac mentioned the invention of a detection system for false banknotes and coins.

When Isaac Keesing died in 1966, his son Leo Keesing took over the company. He acted as president-director until 1986. In an interview with Het Parool, Leo stated that Contrefaçons et Falsifications had the “highest priority within the company”: “When we get a message from Paris, we stop the presses and hold everything else.” In that same interview, he claimed that thanks to the exclusive collaboration with Interpol, Keesing was the only publisher that was able and was allowed to publish a periodical of this kind. As such, Keesing had become an “indispensable link in the chain that helped authorities to fight counterfeiting”, the newspaper stated.

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.

ID verification

In the 1980s, Isaac’s Grandson Simon Keesing, who previously worked in the department of falsifications at the Israeli police, became Keesing’s director. Under Simon’s leadership, the company entered the world of ID verification. Keesing started to work on publishing books that were similar to Contrefaçons et Falsifications, with real passports that they 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 1990, Keesing added ID verification products to its services. In 1999, Keesing made a comprehensive ID document and banknote reference database available online, called DocumentChecker. From 2004 to 2019,  Keesing published the Keesing Journal of Documents and Identity, a bi-monthly print journal covering a wide range of topics concerning document and banknote verification.

From Systemen to Keesing Technologies

Up until the 1990s, Keesing remained a family-owned company. In 2001, Simon Keesing stepped down as president-director and the Keesing family withdrew from the board. In 2006, NPM bought shares from the family, and earned a majority share.

In the following years, the company was split up into different companies. Keesing Media Group specialized in publishing puzzle books and is now owned by BC Capital. Keesing Technologies focused on identity and banknote verification. The company transformed from a publisher to a software and service provider, offering products like DocumentChecker, an extensive banknote and ID document database, and AuthentiScan, an automated, 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.