MasterCard OneSmart PayPass EMV Contactless Combi Cards Provided by Gemalto Enhance Consumers’ Purchasing Experiences

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands and TAIPEI, Taiwan– Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, announced that it has won a “Best Vendor Partner Award” for its MasterCard OneSmart PayPass EMV (Europay MasterCard Visa) Contactless Combi Cards at the MasterCard Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa Product Forum in August 2006. Gemalto is delivering the cards to two of Taiwan’s leading banks: Cathay United Bank, one of the top three credit card issuing banks in Taiwan; and Taipei Fubon Bank, Taiwan’s second-largest privately owned bank.

“MasterCard presented this Best Vendor Partner Award to Gemalto in recognition of their efforts in taking a lead in designing and producing MasterCard OneSmart PayPass EMV Contactless Combi Card to financial institutions in Taiwan. The convenient, flexible and secure MasterCard OneSmart PayPass EMV Contactless Combi Card produced by Gemalto will enable banks to extend a wide range of valuable services to their customers,” commented MasterCard.

The cards are compliant with Taipei Smart Card Corporation’s applications (stored value card, and Epurse for transportation applications) and will simplify and quicken small-sum payments for Taiwan’s MRT, bus, parking lots and other locations, allowing cardholders to benefit from high-tech, secure and convenient transactions. Cardholders no longer need to swipe their cards, search for coins or wait for change: they can simply tap their MasterCard PayPass EMV Combi cards at PayPass readers to complete the transactions. The PayPass EMV Contactless Combi Card features both a built-in chip and a standard magnetic stripe, ensuring the card is still applicable to be used at existing terminals.

“We are very proud to be recognized as a Best Partner by MasterCard,” said Tan Teck Lee, President of Gemalto North Asia. “Our MasterCard OneSmart PayPass EMV Contactless Combi Card provides an enhanced experience that benefits both consumers and enterprises. As our projects with two Taiwanese banks demonstrate, our ultimate goal is not only to make the deployment of card applications easier for our partners, but also enable our clients to bring more value to their end users. With a strong R&D base in the Asia-Pacific region and the advanced capacity to provide customized state-of-the-art products, Gemalto is well prepared to explore more business opportunities in local markets with diverse groups of partners.”