Gemplus and SIBS lead Portugal into the EMV migration

Lisbon, May 27th, 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, today announced it has signed a contract for Portugal's EMV migration with Sociedade Interbancária de Serviços (SIBS), the Portuguese Company, owned by the Portuguese banks responsible for the development and introduction of technological solutions for the national payment system. This deal reinforces Gemplus' position in the Iberian banking market.

Under the terms of the contract, SIBS will deliver and personalize Gemplus' GemValue EMV cards to Portuguese banks. From May, Gemplus will provide EMV-enabled debit and credit cards to SIBS in a deal that will last 3 years and see the estimated delivery of six to eight million EMV cards.

SIBS has already made its first order of 50,000 GemValue EMV cards from the smart card technology-based solutions provider, and production is currently underway in Gemplus' facility.

Initially, the cards will be used for payment purposes, but the smart cards form the basis for the addition of much-valued smart card applications such as loyalty schemes, which can be added at a future date.

"Gemplus is a leading provider in the EMV migration" explained Raul Carvalho das Neves, General Manager of SIBS Card Personalization. "Our work together in designing and delivering chip based products for the Portuguese market, like the e-purse has shown us that Gemplus is a highly reliable partner which understands the needs of our market. We are very happy to be working with the Gemplus team on this crucial project, leveraging on our relationship of more than 10 years."

"Gemplus has a successful track record in helping financial institutions all over the world to meet tough EMV migration deadlines. Combined with SIBS' profound knowledge of the Portuguese payment market and its strong understanding of smart card technology, this partnership is a logical choice" said Alain Faburel, Sales Director for South-East EMEA at Gemplus Financial Services Business Unit. "Rather than doing the minimum to meet the EMV directives, we encourage our customers to see the business benefits enabled by moving to smart card-based debit and credit cards. Leading the way to opening up new revenue streams and significantly improving the customer experience with value-added services has put Gemplus at the heart of the EMV migration."

Gemplus is the world's leading provider of EMV project solutions, serving financial institutions in more than 80 countries across the globe, and is also the fastest-growing supplier of smart card-based solutions to the global banking community.

SIBS, besides providing support to the nationwide payment network system and processing of card transactions, is the leading Card Personalization Company in Portugal.

About SIBS

With almost twenty years of activity dedicated to the effectiveness and efficiency of the Portuguese payment system, SIBS (Sociedade Interbancária de Serviços, S.A.) is a cooperative creation of the Portuguese banking industry that aims to improve the service of all its clients and the Portuguese population in general.

SIBS ensures the management and development of the national payments network as well as other inter-banking services. Last year, SIBS had more than 1,100 million transactions at its Multibanco system and around 250 million resulting from the areas of cheques clearing, drafts, transfers and direct debits.

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 (2003); Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor.) It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience and an outstanding track record of technological innovation.

Gemplus offers 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 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

For more information

Steve Lacourt, 
Gemplus PR 
Tel: +32 495 29 20 26 
e-mail: steve.lacourt@gemplus.com

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