New process eliminates time consuming need to “manually” personalize mobile handsets individually

Munich/Las Vegas, April 05, 2006–Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and MasterCard International today announced, at the CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas, the launch of the world’s first full-scale over-the-air (OTA) secure personalization payment solution for mobile phone-based payments, developed and managed by G&D. The solution will make the management of contactless payments with mobile phones secure, economical and flexible for participating financial institutions as the new process eliminates the time consuming need to “manually” personalize mobile handsets individually, which has been the method used for mobile payment trials until now.

This is the first OTA secure personalization and management solution for mobile payments that can activate the MasterCard® PayPass™ contactless payment application in the mobile phone securely. Customers wanting to enable PayPass with their phone, make a one-time request to their bank to register them for the service. Data is sent over the carrier network and then automatically loads and activates the PayPass payment application in the mobile phone while personalizing the phone’s built-in “secure area” with the customers’ payment account details. This OTA infrastructure can also be used to upload additional applications to the handset, as well as manage and modify user information.

MasterCard PayPass is widely used in the U.S. as a means for making fast and convenient “Tap & Go™” payments. To perform a PayPass transaction using a mobile phone, users simply tap the back of the phone on the landing zone of the special PayPass reader to initiate the transaction. All PayPass-enabled mobile phones can be used at existing PayPass merchant locations. The mobile phone’s secure area can also be used for other security-related applications, such as access control and e-ticketing. G&D provides the complete OTA solution as a service, making it an independent partner for the many different application providers including banks, public transport services and government agencies.

“MasterCard views mobile phone-based payments as an exciting new channel, as studies confirm that consumers increasingly prefer using mobile phones for many everyday activities,” said Richard Fletcher, Group Head, Mobile/Wireless Center of Excellence, MasterCard International. “We are excited to be working with G&D as a partner in this pioneering project, enabling our customers to bring secure, scalable PayPass-enabled mobile phone programs to market.” “Giesecke & Devrient’s vast experience with security technologies and chip card personalization, in addition to its extensive certification levels, make G&D a trusted business partner for over-the-air personalization payment solutions,” commented Dr. Kai Grassie, Head of the New Business Division at G&D.

Pilot projects of this breakthrough over the air contactless payments personalization platform are expected to begin shortly, beginning in the United States. First implementations of the G&D solution will use NFC-enabled Nokia 3220 handsets. G&D will demonstrate the OTA personalization solution at booth # 1244 during CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas.