Gemplus's GemAuthenticate™ Server certified for the MasterCard OneSMART™ Chip Authentication Program

Luxembourg, 10 November 2005 – Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 – GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world’s leading provider of smart card solutions, today announced that its user Authentication Server, GemAuthenticate™ was successfully tested against the MasterCard OneSMART™ Chip Authentication Program (CAP) specification. The approval makes it possible for financial institutions to use GemAuthenticate™ with the popular MasterCard authentication program. Gemplus is the first smart card manufacturer to achieve this certification.

Using the GemAuthenticate™ Server, MasterCard’s customer financial institutions can secure customer access to online banking services and online purchases using two-factor authentication. Cardholders simply insert their standard EMV^[1] card (something they have) into a portable reader, which is supplied to them by their bank, and enter their PIN (something they know). Each time a user enters their PIN, a one time password (OTP) is generated and used to authenticate the user over the bank’s network. Users can then access their online banking services and make online purchases knowing that their personal information is safe and secure. In addition to reducing fraud, the solution helps to reduce password management costs.

“MasterCard partners with leading companies, such as Gemplus, to provide its customer financial institutions with the highly secure chip-based cardholder authentication programs needed for e-payment and e-banking channels,” said Dr. Toni Merschen, senior vice president, Chip Center of Excellence, MasterCard International. “The MasterCard OneSMART Chip Authentication Program leverages existing EMV infrastructure and extends it into the virtual world.”

“After delivering secure solutions in the physical world, Gemplus is now helping banks fight fraud in the virtual world with its GemAuthenticate™ Server,” said Philippe David, Vice-President Business Development, Financial Services at Gemplus. “By combining this innovative solution with Gemplus’ smart payment cards and readers, financial institutions can now seamlessly implement a strong authentication solution at minimal cost, while enjoying greater returns on their EMV investment.”

The OneSMART Chip Authentication Program is part of MasterCard’s SecureCode™ program, which extends MasterCard’s guaranteed payment model to the Internet. Issuers have the option of selecting the authentication solution that best meets their business and risk management requirements. For the consumer, the benefits are also numerous. CAP offers a single access method to all banking services and secures online transactions with little impact to the overall shopping experience.

Gemplus will demonstrate GemAuthenticate™ at Cartes 2005, 15-17 November in Paris – Hall 3.

About GemAuthenticate
 
GemAuthenticate™ Server is a complete and open authentication platform that supports a wide range of authentication methods and any devices such as smart cards, connected and portable readers, tokens and mobile phone. With a combination of its authentication server, EMV smart cards and portable readers, Gemplus can now offer to their banking customers an end-to-end authentication solution.

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 (2005), Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5 billion smart cards.

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 2004 was 865 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

^[1] EMV is a smart card payment standard that was created in 1996 by Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV), guaranteeing worldwide interoperability and security for payment. Benefiting card issuers, acquirers and cardholders, EMV is essential in the reduction of fraud and also provides opportunities for financial institutions to differentiate new services for cardholders.

For more information

Steve Lacourt
Gemplus Financial Services Business Unit
Tel: +32 (0) 2 711 48 20
Fax: +32 (0) 2 725 14 60
Email: steve.lacourt@gemplus.com

Matthew McGuinness
Edelman
Tel +44 207 344 1259
Fax +44 774 003 8921
Email: Matthew.McGuinness@edelman.com

 
©2005 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus, 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.

Some of the statements contained in this release constitute 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 results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied 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 wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.