DYNAMIC SMART CARD PROGRAM BY MASTERCARD UNDERLINES AXALTO'S CAPACITY TO PROVIDE DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS
22 March 2004 - Schlumberger

This program, initiated by MasterCard last November and launched in partnership with Sony PlayStation, aimed at reinforcing young customer loyalty with innovative credit cards. ING proposed a MasterCard credit card to students -and professionally active customers in the 20-30 age bracket. The smart card features discount prices on PlayStation 2 consoles and games as well as a differentiated card body which makes it quite unique on the banking market today.

'Potentially very volatile, the 20-30 year old customers have become highly strategic for banks,' says Luc Van Puyvelde, Group Account Director for ING at MasterCard. 'Our experience shows that these customers need specific products combining payment flexibility, dynamic offers and especially off the beaten track look. The design with rainbow-effects is very innovative and we have wanted to use SMS as an accordingly innovative channel to promote the card.'

Jean Claude Perrin, head of banking and loyalty markets at Axalto, comments: 'We see a trend in the banking and loyalty market that considers cards as a more powerful marketing tool than it used to be, where the plastic body becomes a strong communication vehicle. As banks are willing to renew their image and reinforce the positioning of their products, the management of technology and manufacturing process can make a difference as well as our twenty five years experience.'

Axalto, a Schlumberger company, is the world's leading provider of microprocessor cards (Gartner 2003, Frost & Sullivan 2003), the key to digital networks, and a major supplier of point-of-sale terminals. Its 4300 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries, with worldwide sales reaching 3 billion smart cards to date. The company has more than 20 years' experience in smart card innovation and leads its industry in security technology and open systems.

Axalto continuously creates new generations of products for use in a variety of applications in the telecommunications, finance, retail, transport, entertainment, healthcare, personal identification, information technology and public sector markets. Smart card solutions provide convenience, security and privacy to public and private services operators, their customers and end users. For more information, visit us at www.axalto.com

MasterCard International is a leading global payments solutions company that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our global members' credit, deposit access, electronic cash, business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment card brands including MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus and serves financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless advertising campaign is now seen in 98 countries and in 46 languages, giving the MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope.

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