 Gemplus
Deploys First French EMV Banking Cards
World looks at French bank Société Générale in EMV migration
Luxembourg, February 18th, 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext:
LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card
solutions, today announced that it had become the first company to begin
personalisation of EMV payment cards for the French financial
market with the production of EMV-compliant payment cards for Société
Générale, one of the largest financial services suppliers in the Euro zone.
Working closely with Société Générale and GIE Cartes Bancaires, Gemplus
began production of B0'-EMV cards for Société Générale on 6th January 2004.
Gemplus has been a key partner of Société Générale for many years, when
payment cards issued in France were based on a domestic payment application
coded inside the smart card chip, named B0' . In 2000, Gemplus was selected by
GIE Cartes Bancaires, a consortium of all major French banks charged with the
security and standardization of French payment card infrastructure, to develop a
new card that would bear both domestic and standard EMV applications. The card
would also include the French e-purse application, Moneo, should this be
required by individual banks.
"For strategic reasons, Société Générale wants to migrate rapidly to
EMV and we have relied on Gemplus to help us achieve this target,"
explained Patrick Rasson, Vice President Payment at Société Générale.
"We knew that Gemplus is successfully involved in several EMV projects
abroad and that it perfectly understands our national card application. Gemplus
has a global offer which provides the services Société Générale was looking
for. Plus, as a trusted partner of ours and of GIE Cartes Bancaires, we were
confident that Gemplus' proven experience could help us at every stage of the
migration process."
"The delivery of personalised EMV cards to Société Générale is not
only a French first but a major milestone for EMV migration worldwide,"
said Justin D'Angelo, Senior Vice President at Gemplus Financial Services
Business Unit. "France is the most mature market in smart card payment, and
we expect to see all other countries looking to France as a reference during the
course of their EMV migrations."
Under the terms of the contract, Gemplus will deliver personalized EMV-compliant
payment cards to Société Générale which include the native and historical
B0' application, as well as new EMV applications. The cards are being produced
by the Gemplus factory in Gémenos.
EMV: Smart card standard that was created in 1996 by
Europay, MasterCard and Visa, guaranteeing worldwide interoperability and
security.
B0': Specifications created by french banks to reinforce
smart card security
About Société Générale
Société Générale is one of the largest financial services groups in the
euro-zone. The Group employs 88,000 people worldwide in three key
businesses:
- Retail Banking & Financial Services: Société Générale serves more
than 15 million retail customers worldwide
- Asset Management, Private Banking & Securities services: Société
Générale is one of the largest banks in the euro-zone in terms of assets
under custody ($1,200 billion) and under management (€281.5 billion,
September 2003)
- Corporate & Investment Banking: SG CIB ranks among the leading banks
worldwide in euro capital markets, derivatives and structured finance
Société Générale is included in the four major socially responsible
investment indexes.
www.socgen.com
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 2002: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor.)
It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track
record of technological innovation.
Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable,
personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives.
These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail,
Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of
other applications.
Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749,2 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
For more information
Steve Lacourt,
Gemplus PR
Tel: +32 495 29 20 26
e-mail: steve.lacourt@gemplus.com
Vanessa Clarke
Account Director, Edelman
Tel: +44 (0)20 7344 1349 / Mobile +44 (0)7730 989 698
e-mail: vanessa.clarke@edelman.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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forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our
future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties,
and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future
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by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ
materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking
statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in
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our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major
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services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share
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accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this
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