Transforms Payment Experience for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware Residents, Merchants; Wawa Stores Offer Customers Speed, Convenience With “blink”

PHILADELPHIA, October 27, 2005–Chase Bank U.S.A., N.A., a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. [NYSE: JPM], announced today the rollout of its new Chase contactless credit cards with “blink” in the greater Philadelphia tri-state area, including Southern New Jersey and Delaware. Beginning this week, Chase will deliver the new credit cards with blink to approximately 900,000 cardmembers, increasing the speed and convenience of credit card use at an initial base of approximately 1,200 merchant locations.

The initial merchants will include 7-Eleven®, AMC Theatres®, CVS/pharmacy, Regal Entertainment Group and Wawa. Wawa will also be one of Chase’s earliest partners to launch its co-branded credit card with the blink feature, allowing customers the ability to use the new Wawa co-branded card and Chase cards with blink at all 540 of its locations.

In addition to offering Chase cards with blink to Philadelphia tri-state area cardmembers, this week Chase will also begin issuing cards with blink to approximately two million cardmembers in the greater New York tri-state area, including New Jersey and Connecticut.

To use Chase cards with blink, cardmembers simply hold their card near a point-of-sale reader at checkout, instead of swiping their card or handing it to a store employee. As cardmembers hold their Chase card with blink near the point-of-sale reader, the reader will quickly emit a tone and light up to signal payment confirmation.

“We believe the innovative cards with blink provide merchants and cardmembers with the increased speed and convenience they want at the point-of-sale,” said Carter Franke, chief marketing officer of Chase Card Services, the company’s credit card division. “With blink, cardmembers in the greater Philadelphia tri-state area, including parts of New Jersey and Delaware, can save time when making everyday purchases.”

Working in conjunction with Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International, Chase has identified locations where speed and convenience are important to consumers and is introducing the new Chase card with blink with an impressive roster of participating Philadelphia merchants. The number of merchants accepting the Chase card with blink is expected to grow steadily throughout this year and into next year. The new Chase cards with blink also feature the traditional magnetic stripe and can be used anywhere Visa and MasterCard are accepted.

“We pride ourselves on delighting customers with a ‘gottahava,’ built-to-order store experience,” said Howard Stoeckel, chief executive officer at Wawa. “We are excited to offer our customers yet another new approach to buying what they need even faster. In support of Chase’s launch of blink, all of our quality food markets will be equipped this fall for contactless payment acceptance.”

Benefits for Cardmembers and Merchants

After taking part in a pilot program and evaluating the results of trials from around the world, Chase understands the value and benefits that cards with blink provide to both cardmembers and merchants. Trial results confirmed that consumers find the contactless technology to be simple, fast and convenient, and also enjoy the added security from retaining possession of their cards while paying.

The most significant time savings were realized in the drive-through environment, where transaction time was reduced by as much as 20 seconds as compared to cash. Consumers also liked the convenience of not carrying cash for everyday purchases. They no longer needed to fumble around for change and small bills, or be confined by the cash in their purses or wallets. In fact, 60 percent of respondents to a recent MasterCard survey said they use cash less often today than they did five years ago.

For merchants, blink transactions speed check-out times and allow consumers to spend less time waiting in lines. Research has shown that customers who use blink cards often spend more per transaction and are happier with their store experience. Chase cards with blink also provide a reliable, trusted payment method that works well in environments where speed is important.

Making More Time for Philadelphia Residents

In support of the new Chase credit cards with blink, and their ability to offer cardmembers more time and convenience, Chase recently commissioned a telephone survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation. The Chase “Just in a blink of time” Index polled 1,000 adult Americans hoping to discover what really irks them about waiting in line to do everyday routine activities. The survey was conducted April 15 – 17, 2005 with the results representative of and projectable to the U.S. population. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent. The survey also revealed how Americans make the most of waiting in line and how they look for timesaving alternatives.

• Americans most dread waiting in lines at the doctor’s office (27%) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (26%) followed by the grocery store (18%) and the airport (14%).

• Americans dislike waiting in lines but the following behaviors make it worse–slow/inefficient cashiers (23%), someone changing their mind about an item that has been rung up (19%), and someone who leaves the line to run back for an item (19%).

• One-third of Americans (32%) get frustrated after waiting in line for 10 minutes or less.

• Half of Americans (52%) take the stairs instead of waiting for an elevator.

• One-third of Americans will drive fast (35%), bring other things to do while waiting in line (33%) and buy fewer items to use the express lane (30%).

• Also, one-quarter of Americans use a fast pass on the highway (24%).

Integrated Marketing and Advertising Campaign

To introduce Chase credit cards with blink, Chase will launch an integrated marketing campaign targeting Chase cardmembers in the Philadelphia metro area to help educate and excite local consumers. The campaign will encourage cardmembers to “blink lunch,” “blink a bagful” or “blink a movie” by bringing to life how the card can be used at many leading merchants. The campaign will leverage television, radio, newspaper and outdoor advertising to reach consumers, and will be complemented by several direct mail communications to educate Chase cardmembers about the new card feature. Downloadable files of the ads are available at http://www.chaseblink.com/phl-tristate.

About Chase Cards with blink

In May 2005, Chase became the first bank to initiate a large-scale market-by-market roll out of contactless credit cards after working closely with merchants across the country to ensure the broadest possible acceptance. There are currently more than five million Chase credit cards with blink being utilized in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania at locations where speed and convenience are important to consumers, such as movie theaters, quick service restaurants, convenience stores and drug stores. The number of merchants accepting the Chase cards with blink is expected to grow steadily throughout this year and into next year.

A History of Innovation

In the past two years, Chase has successfully created a number of innovative payment products such as the Starbucks Card Duetto Visa, a first-of-its-kind payment card blending Visa credit card functionality with the reloadable Starbucks Card; the stored-value Disney Dream Rewards Card as part of Disney’s Visa Credit Card Program; and the AARP Visa Card, which combines cardmembers’ credit/membership card into a first-of-its-kind card that provides automatic discounts at the point-of-sale.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.2 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. The company has more than 100 million credit cards issued. Under the JPMorgan, Chase and Bank One brands, the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients. Information about the firm is available at http://www.jpmorganchase.com.