MicroPass 4003 Receives MasterCard® PayPass™ Certification

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, March 17, 2008–INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open standard contactless chip technologies, today announced that the next-generation MicroPass® 4003 contactless payment microprocessor is ready for deployment in MasterCard® PayPass™ products. Designed to optimally meet the high-volume, multi-payment brand and multi-application requirements of the U.S., Canadian and other contactless payment markets, the MicroPass 4003 intelligent payment platform enables card manufacturers to rapidly deliver MasterCard PayPass approved products into the market.

“INSIDE has achieved tremendous success over the past year in deploying the MicroPass intelligent hardware platform, quickly becoming the number-one global provider of MasterCard PayPass chip platforms,” said Charles Walton, executive vice president of payments for INSIDE Contactless. “The approval we have received for the new 4003 reflects our commitment to continuing to deliver cutting-edge contactless platforms for MasterCard PayPass.”

According to Walton, INSIDE achieved more than 12 million deliveries of the INSIDE MicroPass L4-2G, the predecessor to the 4003, to card manufacturers in 2007 for PayPass issuance in the US, Canada, Philippines, and Australia.

INSIDE Contactless continues to improve the security capabilities of its intelligent hardware platforms, and the MicroPass 4003 incorporates significant new security enhancements developed in cooperation with MasterCard in conjunction with its CAST compliance. This fact, combined with INSIDE’s completion of digital and functional testing and type approval for PayPass, enables card manufacturers to more easily obtain final approvals from MasterCard for manufacturing PayPass cards powered by the MicroPass 4003. Further, a packaging configuration of MicroPass 4003 with an INSIDE-designed half-size antenna has been pre-approved for use by MasterCard-qualified card manufacturers with a reduced set of tests. According to INSIDE Contactless, the MicroPass 4003 continues to offer multiple payment brands and multiple application support, as well as the industry’s fastest transaction time and outstanding read distance to deliver the most reliable cardholder experience.

“We are very pleased to be able to grant the new MicroPass 4003 type approval and CAST approval,” said Cathleen Conforti, senior vice president, Global PayPass, MasterCard Worldwide. “Vendor solutions such as MicroPass are an essential part of MasterCard PayPass and play an important role in providing Tap & Go™ convenience of this new generation of payment solutions.”

MicroPass is used today to power contactless bank cards issued by more than 25 U.S. and Canadian issuers, along with cards deployed in Asia, Latin America and Europe. MicroPass is the most broadly available core technology for contactless payments with 20 card and fob products from major global and regional card manufacturers certified by the leading card brands. Contactless credit, debit and pre-paid bank cards issued with MicroPass today are able to be used at locations such as McDonald’s, Tim Horton’s, 7-Eleven, CVS, Coca-Cola vending machines, New York City and Philadelphia taxi cabs, and numerous Major League Baseball and NFL stadiums in the U.S.

The INSIDE MicroPass 4003 was designed specifically to meet multi-payment brand and multi-application requirements of the U.S., Canadian and other contactless payment markets. As an intelligent hardware platform, the native operating system incorporated into the MicroPass 4003 provides fast, secure, reliable and flexible support for one or more payment, retail/gift card, access control, transit, ID or other emerging applications. Flexible packaging options enable card manufacturers to purchase the MicroPass 4003 in multiple configurations, including wafer, module, and inlay forms for use in finished cards, key fobs, and other form factors.

INSIDE also offers the MicroPass SDK to card manufacturers, terminal manufacturers, personalization bureaus, systems integrators, and issuers with in-house application development staff. The MicroPass SDK helps developers create retailer loyalty, transit, access, and simple ID applications and incorporate those applications onto a MicroPass contactless bank payment card. These data applications provide a simple way of creating a value-added experience at the contactless point of acceptance and related access points.

Availability and Pricing

The INSIDE Contactless MicroPass 4003 contactless payment card microprocessor is available now. Please contact INSIDE for specific pricing information.

About MicroPass

MicroPass® is a family of intelligent hardware platforms designed to power open standard contactless and dual interface bank card payments 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 features low power consumption, fast transaction processing, and overall performance meeting the demands of issuer organizations in the bank card payments, transit, and access control markets. MicroPass is the platform of choice for card manufacturers and issuers in the U.S. market with more than 35 million MicroPass-powered bank cards deployed. With very low power requirements, MicroPass also remains the most suitable core platform for key fob and alternative form factor deployments.

About INSIDE Contactless

As the only fabless semiconductor company focused exclusively on contactless chip platforms, INSIDE Contactless is a market leader in Near Field Communication (NFC), contactless payments and access control. Innovation in contactless technology has led to more than 55 patents granted to INSIDE, including several essential NFC technology patents. INSIDE is the number-one market share provider of contactless bank card applications in the world, with more than 35 million MicroPass intelligent payment platforms delivered from launch in 2005 through 2007. These MicroPass platforms power cards from more than 25 leading bank card issuers. More than 25 key partners around the world, including major card manufacturers and handset providers, have successfully delivered “powered by INSIDE” contactless products such as payment and access cards, point-of-sale terminals, NFC-enabled mobile handsets, and other products. INSIDE Contactless is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Poland, San Francisco, and Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.