Gemplus and Meridea to secure mobile banking

Gemplus' solutions and Meridea's financial software brings an added layer of security to Java-based mobile banking.

Luxembourg and Cartes, Paris, 2 November 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card based solutions, announces a partnership with Meridea Financial Software Ltd., a provider of banking and investment applications and software delivery environment, in order to address the stringent requirements of the European banking industry.

In order to provide attractive yet secure banking services from the latest mobile devices, this application uses Java technology to communicate between the handset and the SIM. In this way, it is possible to split the Java application and store confidential information securely in the SIM and the bulk of the application in the handset. Based on J2ME*, the application also ensures a comfortable and attractive "look and feel" for the end-user experience. Banks and their customers will therefore have differentiating services and peace of mind when using the mobile channel to distribute their services.

"Gemplus has been investing in the possibilities of the Java Card™ SIM for financial applications for some time, with notable success in Belgium & South Korea, and with the emergence of Java enabled handsets we are now able to take this experience to the latest mobile phones. By working with Meridea, one of the key references for financial software, we now have the requisite experience to commercialize our offer", said Philippe Vallee, Executive Vice President, Telecom Business Unit, Gemplus.

In addition, the SIM's inherent features enable it to provide secure authentication and generate digital signatures. As it interacts directly with the handset, the end-user is able to view the financial data stored in their mobile device or prepare transactions off-line when there is no network coverage.

"With the strict requirements from the banking industry, we needed to find a way to deploy our software with strong authentication and user credentials stored in tamper proof memory in mobile phones. The SIM is present in every GSM handset and well known for its tamper resistance. We are impressed of the developments that Gemplus has introduced with Java SIM technology, and therefore, welcome the opportunity to work with Gemplus in integrating our software into the Java Card SIM", said Jukka Riivari, CEO, Meridea.

For a demonstration, please visit the Gemplus stand (Hall 3, E2) at Cartes 2004, Paris, 2-4 November.

*J2ME - Java 2 Micro Edition is a small Java application environment, a framework for the deployment and use of Java technology in machines with limited hardware resources.

About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest (2004), Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor.). It has sold over 4 billion smart cards.

With security at its core, and 2400 patents produced by its innovative R&D team, Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.

Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

About Meridea
Meridea Financial Software Ltd. is a software provider whose solutions enable banks and financial institutions to offer their customers fully integrated multi-channel services. Meridea is owned by Nokia, Accenture, Sampo, 3i and Nordic Venture Partners. Meridea currently employs 65 IT and finance professionals. Headquartered at Pitäjänmäki in Helsinki, Meridea also has representatives in Scandinavia, Benelux, Germany, the UK and Singapore.

www.meridea.com

For more information

Jane Strachey
Gemplus PR
Tel: +33 (0) 6 76 49 35 93
e-mail: jane.strachey@gemplus.com

Iris Heinonen
Corporate PR, Meridea
Tel: +358 50 3866 506
iris.heinonen@meridea.com

©2004 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.

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