Launches CASSIS Americas, Appoints New Chief of CASSIS Europe, Adds Two Prominent Board Members

Singapore, April 13, 2010–CASSIS International, a leader in trusted services for smart payments, mobile commerce and near field communication (NFC), today announced a new global organization that establishes a strong presence in the Americas, expands operations in Europe, and appoints David Eldon and Jackson Tai–two prominent figures from the financial industry–to the company’s board of directors. The new organization positions CASSIS to play an expanded global role to capitalize on the anticipated worldwide explosion in the use of mobile phones for payments, transit, loyalty/rewards, identity, access control and commerce.

“CASSIS has achieved unrivalled commercial experience and technical expertise in providing trusted services by working with banks, mobile operators, transit companies and other service providers on a significant number of commercial mobile NFC projects throughout Asia/Pacific and across the globe,” said TH Tan, co-founder and chairman of CASSIS International. “These new steps in global expansion build on our success and deep cross-industry expertise for the next phase of global growth. We put in place new and expanded operations with strong leadership in the Americas and Europe, and added two new distinguished members to our board, making CASSIS more effective in working with clients to have the right business models and technologies for consumers to adopt mobile life styles.”

“We are ready for global commercial deployment,” said Chua Thian Yee, co-founder and CEO of CASSIS.

CASSIS Americas

Allen Merrill has been appointed president of the newly formed CASSIS Americas in New York City. Merrill joins CASSIS with more than 25 years of helping financial institutions and other service providers around the world to formulate and execute profitable payments strategies and programs. Merrill most recently served as group executive at MasterCard Worldwide, and was previously a partner at McKinsey & Company, a director at Bain & Company and head of A.T. Kearney’s global financial services business.

CASSIS Americas will focus on helping customers and partners achieve their full revenue and profit potential from mobile NFC initiatives. CASSIS Americas is also establishing a regional security center and data hosting capability to support its trusted service (TSM) activities in the region.

“The potential market for mobile contactless transactions of all kinds is significant,” said Allen Merrill, president of CASSIS Americas. “Consumers as well as service providers will benefit from the added convenience, security, operational efficiency, marketing effectiveness and business profitability made possible by CASSIS’s market-proven trusted service platform, and we anticipate a significant ramp-up in the Americas.”

CASSIS Europe

Jean-Philippe Betoin has been appointed president of the expanded CASSIS Europe. With more than 15 years of experience in the smart card and mobile industries, Betoin held several executive marketing positions at Gemplus (now Gemalto), and most recently served as vice president for strategy and device marketing for the NFC business unit at INSIDE Contactless. He has served as chairman of SIMalliance and was a board member of the NFC Forum.

Based in Aix-en-Provence, CASSIS Europe is expanding its business opportunities and working with a growing set of blue chip customers, such as BKM in Turkey, Orange Business Services in France and Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy, to implement its clients’ visions of the next-generation consumer experience.

“As the only remaining independent TSM service and software provider in the region with a proven track record, CASSIS enables our clients to enjoy the flexibility of multi-sourcing and multiple form factors for the provisioning of NFC services,” said Jean-Philippe Betoin, president of CASSIS Europe. “Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, we offer greater flexibility to mix and match our platform and service offerings together with those of our local partners to meet our customers’ requirements and capabilities.”

New Board Members

CASSIS International has appointed Jackson Tai and David Eldon, two prominent business leaders with extensive international commercial banking experience and deep understanding of financial markets, to its board of directors.

Most recently, Jackson Tai was vice chairman and CEO of DBS Group and DBS Bank Ltd., the largest bank in Southeast Asia. Tai also served 25 years with J.P. Morgan & Co. as a managing director in the Investment Banking Division. Tai is currently a director for ING Group NV, MasterCard Incorporated and CapitaLand Ltd., among others. He has been nominated as a director for NYSE Euronext. Tai will also serve as chairman of the newly formed CASSIS Americas, Inc.

David Eldon spent 37 years in various positions with the HSBC Group in the Middle and Far East, culminating as chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. In recognition of his contributions to the banking industry and society, Eldon was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE), and was awarded Honorary Citizenship of Seoul. Eldon’s current activities include senior adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers, chairman of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority and special adviser to the South Korean President’s office.

About CASSIS International

Founded in 2002, CASSIS International is a global leader in innovation and trusted services for smart payments, mobile commerce and near field communication (NFC). CASSIS offers a flexible combination of multifunction smart card enablement and production capabilities, carrier-grade NFC enablement software and platforms, end-to-end trusted services (TSM) and specialized professional support, enabling service providers worldwide to deliver secure, convenient functionality to their customers. With an extensive track record of successful, proven commercial TSM deployments–including the world’s first commercial NFC project–CASSIS has unrivaled experience enabling major contactless and mobile payments, ticketing, loyalty/rewards and other applications around the world. Headquartered in Singapore with operations in Asia/Pacific, Europe and the Americas, CASSIS serves a global customer base of leading mobile operators, major card issuers and financial institutions, transit agencies, media companies and other service providers. For more information, visit the CASSIS web site at http://www.CASSIS-intl.com.

For addition information

Patrick Corman
Corman Communications, LLC
+1-650-326-9648
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patrick@cormancom.com