Gemplus Wins ICMA Award for Innovative ‘Zing’ Card Design

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Gemplus recognized for creative personalization of Hong Leong Bank’s Touch ‘n Go MasterCard contactless smart card  

Luxembourg and Singapore, 13 April 2005 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, today announces that the Gemplus Goldpac Group has won the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) Élan Award for Best Financial Card for its MasterCard 'Touch 'n Go Zing' contactless electronic payment smart card.

The Élan Awards are presented to ICMA member companies in recognition of their advancements and achievements in plastic card design. Gemplus Goldpac Group earned the award based on the combination of the Touch 'n Go Zing Card's visual qualities and the specific shape of the card body. The card was issued by Hong Leong Bank in Malaysia and is the world's first contactless MasterCard SideCard. SideCard is an initiative designed to support MasterCard's customer financial institutions in developing their own specific alternative payment solutions, including card shape and design. The Touch 'n Go Zing card features the MasterCard SideCard's modified design, small enough to fit on to a key ring and 30% smaller than an average credit card.

"Card customization is a key differentiator for banks, enabling them to build their brand and customer loyalty through innovative card design and product offerings. This award is very significant for us as it endorses our continuing leadership in creating striking and original card designs," commented Philippe Combes, Executive Vice President, Operations & Financial Services, Gemplus. Mr Combes added, "Gemplus is an experienced supplier of contactless systems and recognizes the increasing interest in this technology. Since 1995, we have delivered more than 50 million contactless smart cards globally".

The Touch 'n Go contactless smart card is a dual-function credit and stored value card, allowing it to be used for credit card purchases as well as at all Touch 'n Go facilities. Drivers and passengers can use the card to make payments for tolls and in public transport where the value is deducted instantly from the stored purse.

"We are very pleased that Gemplus has received this award for the design of our card. Gemplus has been integral to helping us design and produce this card, which is well received by our customers. Offering a contactless solution based on a user-friendly design is key to our strategy for building customer loyalty and driving increased usage of the payment cards," concluded Mr. Khair Ul-Anwar Mohd Yusoff, General Manager Sales & Marketing Division, RANGKAIAN SEGAR SDN BHD (RSSB). RSSB is the company who operates the Touch 'n Go toll system in Malaysia and the Touch 'n Go Zing is RSSB's brand name for auto-reload facility for the Touch 'n Go system.

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 5 billion smart cards.
With security at its core, and 2400 patents and patent applications 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 2004 was 865 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

About Gemplus Goldpac

Established in 1995 by the association of Goldpac International Holding Ltd in Hong Kong and Gemplus, Gemplus Goldpac is one of the card manufacturing and card personalization companies in China certified by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and CUP (China UnionPay).

With over 600 employees, three branch companies and six business offices, it has issued over one billion cards making it one of the biggest card suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region. Its business interests include finance, public transportation, campus, highway, and e-banking. Gemplus Goldpac has a growing business presence in Hong Kong and Macao.

About the ICMA

The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) serves the dynamic plastic card industry and the various companies and organizations involved in manufacturing and personalizing these cards. Billions of plastic cards now fill pockets and purses throughout the world. As the complexity of card manufacturing and applications has increased, so have the production, standards, quality, security and environmental issues surrounding the cards. The need to bring together these diverse elements of the plastic card industry led to the formation of the ICMA.

ICMA is a worldwide non-profit association of plastic card manufacturers and personalizers supported by suppliers and other industry participants, which promotes the plastic card industry and the value of its products and services providing an independent forum to speak for the industry.

ICMA Expo & Awards
Held annually, the ICMA expo program addresses management & technical matters, industry trends, personalization and production issues as well as new applications. The conference is followed by the Annual Awards Dinner, where the ICMA Elan Awards are presented.

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

Helen Baker
Edelman
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7344 1285
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7344 1222
Email: helen.baker@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.