Flexible MicroPass-Powered Bank Cards Ready for Brazilian Economy

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, December 11th, 2008–Strengthening its presence in the Brazilian contactless payments segment, INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced contactless microprocessor platforms, today announced it is expanding its relationship with American Banknote (ABnote) Brazil to produce Visa type approved contactless payment cards for this growing economy. INSIDE is supplying ABnote Brazil with its award-winning MicroPass® 4003, a contactless payment processor designed from the ground up for Visa payWave applications, and has worked closely with them to obtain type approval, implement in-house pre-personalization capabilities and ensure their products achieve optimal performance.

American Banknote Brazil is the largest secure printing and transaction service provider in Brazil, producing hundreds of millions of cards each year, and is the unrivalled local leader in bank cards as well as virtually every other product and service category the company offers. American Banknote Brazil’s customers include Banco Bradesco, Banco Itaú, Unibanco and Banco do Brasil–as well as Caixa Economica Federal, one of the largest government-owned financial institutions in Latin America

“We are pleased to be able to expand our relationship with ABnote Brazil and provide them with Visa type approved contactless payment cards using our MicroPass 4003 processor,” said Bertrand Moussel, EVP sales for Latin America at INSIDE Contactless. “American Banknote Brazil is an important partner as we expand our international presence into the contactless payments segment in Brazil, helping us to continue our successful global expansion strategy in this potentially lucrative market.”

The multi-application MicroPass 4003 platform is compliant with the latest Visa payWave specifications, and enabled ABnote Brazil to more quickly obtain type approval for its products. The MicroPass 4003 platform supports the Visa Contactless Payment Specification 2.0.2 AC v3.0, including Streamline Online qVSDC and backwards compatibility for MSD 1.4.2. With built-in support for multiple payment brands, MicroPass 4003-powered cards can be delivered to market quickly and easily.

“The flexibility of the MicroPass platform was an important consideration for us in choosing a supplier of contactless processors, and the addition of the Visa type approved solution demonstrates the wisdom of our choice,” said José Roberto Mauro, vice president of the card division for ABnote Brazil. “By supporting multiple brands, MicroPass from INSIDE is enabling us to be more competitive in this market and to expand our markets abroad.”

Since it was first launched at CARTES in November of 2005, the MicroPass intelligent payment platform has achieved its unprecedented success by continuing to deliver superior performance and flexibility, and is now the platform of choice for certified card manufacturers around the world. The MicroPass platform is designed to power open standard contactless and dual-interface bank card payments along with other value-added applications in all global regions. Based upon a RISC architecture and optimized to the demanding requirements of contactless transactions, each of the MicroPass family of products is designed to meet the demands of issuer organizations in the bank card payments, transit and access control markets.

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators, and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul, and San Francisco. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com

About American Banknote SA

American Banknote SA is a leading provider of solutions involving smart cards, contactless cards, magstripe cards, phone cards, RFID, ID systems and print management in Brazil, where the company has built a reputation for quality, security and integrity. ABnote Brazil offers its customers a wide range of security printed documents, personalization services, ID systems, and other complementary products and services. For more information, please visit http://www.abnote.com.br.