Gemplus wins EMV contract to supply 15 million smart cards to HBOS

Smart card migration to help Halifax Bank of Scotland combat card fraud

Luxembourg, 6 November 2003 -- Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, today announced it has won a contract to provide Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), with 15 million smart cards to replace the magnetic stripe system on the bank's debit cards. The deal marks HBOS' continuing move from magnetic stripe cards to EMV-compliant cards.

HBOS currently issues approximately five million debit cards per annum, making it one of the largest debit card issuers in the UK. The contract announced today allows for Gemplus to supply up to 15 million smart cards over the next three years.

With EMV migration in full swing, HBOS is continuing to play its part in the drive by the UK banking industry to combat card payment fraud, which accounted for nearly £425 million in 2002 in payment losses to banks throughout the UK. Through EMV, HBOS will be able to offer more secure payment functionality for its customers. As part of HBOS' migration to EMV the bank will also be introducing PIN based customer verification to further combat fraud. This is in conjunction with the UK PIN at POS initiative.

"We are very excited about migrating our debit card customers onto EMV card technology" said John Capper, Manager Service and Delivery Strategy Banking at Halifax Bank of Scotland. "Working with the market leader in smart card solutions gives us the capability to explore the possibilities within that technology to their fullest, and will allow us to offer our customers an extra level of security and the potential to add a wide range of value added applications, allowing us to help serve them better. One of the reasons we chose Gemplus is because of its great track record in helping customers migrate to EMV."

Catherine Hamilton, Sales Director at Gemplus' financial and security services business unit, explained: "Smart cards are emerging as the most effective means of protecting customer data and securing financial transactions. The migration to smart card-based EMV cards will allow HBOS to offer peace of mind to its customers and to protect both those customers and itself from card payment fraud."

Although all banks are required to go through the EMV migration, HBOS will be among the first UK banks to do so.

About Halifax Bank of Scotland

Formed in September 2001 following the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, HBOS has assets of over £380 billion and has over 25 million customers. It is the UK's largest mortgage, saving and new credit card provider and for the last few years has been at the forefront of the UK banking revolution. With over 60,000 staff and a relationship with two out of every households in the UK, it was recently voted Europe's best performing company."

About Gemplus

Gemplus (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's number one provider of smart card solutions.

Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include mobile data services, inter-operable banking, identity, WLAN, m-commerce and a wealth of other applications. Gemplus is the only completely dedicated, truly global player in the Smart Card industry, with the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation. In 2002, Gemplus was the worldwide smart card leader in both revenue and total smart card shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest). Gemplus was also awarded Frost & Sullivan's 2002 Market Value Leadership Award for its exceptional performance.

Last year Gemplus shipped products & services to 460 bank customers in 67 countries. Gemplus' revenue in 2002 was 787 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

©2003 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus and the Gemplus logo are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.

For further information, contact:

Julian Hirst
Gemplus FSS PR
Tel: +33 (0)442364198
Mobile: +33 (0) 685948414
julian.hirst@gemplus.com

Vanessa Clarke
Edelman PR
Tel: +44 (0)20 7344 1349
Mobile : +44 (0) 7730 989698
vanessa.clarke@edelman.com