Mobile Bank Card Payment System “Iti Achat” recognized by Smart Card Industry Association.

Lawrenceville, NJ, May 17, 2000–The Smart Card Industry Association (SCIA) has granted its 2000 Outstanding Smart Card Application (OSCA) Award to France Telecom Mobile for its “Iti Achat” Mobile Commerce System. The award, presented annually during the CardTech/SecurTech conference, recognizes innovative smart card systems worldwide, and is intended to encourage and applaud broad application of smart card technology.

The mobile BC payment “Iti Achat” system allows French Bank Cardholders to confirm their payment transactions by simply inserting their bank card into a dual slot GSM phone and entering their PIN code. With more than 40 million French Bank Smart Cards and the 22 million GSM phones in France, it is anticipated that more than one million dual slot phones will be deployed by the end of this year.

“The judges were impressed with the way France Telecom had created a new business model by leveraging the early and significant investments in smart card technology by both the French Banks and Wireless Service providers, ” said SCIA Executive Director Charles Cagliostro in announcing the OSCA Award in Miami Beach. “The system is especially exciting as it provides a glimpse of how payments will be done in the next decade and it sends a signal to the PC industry that now is the time to begin incorporating smart card readers as standard equipment in personal computers,” said Cagliostro.

Nominations for the 2000 OSCA Award were submitted by SCIA members from around the world. The winner was selected by a group of international journalists. France Telecom joins previous winners such as the Singapore Land Transit Authority for its smart card-based electronic toll road pricing system, the Seoul Bus Association for an automatic fare collection system using contactless technology, as well as the German GeldKarte project which combined a chip-based electronic purse with the European debit card system for broad application.

The Smart Card Industry Association is a global trade association representing the needs of manufacturers, integrators, resellers, issuers and others throughout the industry. For more information, call the SCIA office at 1-800-848-SCIA or visit its web-site at http://www.scia.org.