Letter to the Editor: Mondex's Expertise Gives MasterCard A Smart Card Edge

Regarding a page 1 article of June 13, "With Buyout, MC Tells Mondex to Court Banks," MasterCard felt it was necessary to clarify the following points to ensure the most accurate portrayal of the Mondex-MasterCard relationship.

MasterCard International has been a proud partner of Mondex International since 1997 and looks forward now to leveraging Mondex's technological expertise under one roof with the proposed acquisition. Mondex has shown solid momentum globally, evidence of the combined success of our strategy to focus on our members and the strength of Mondex's offerings. Under the leadership of chief executive officer Michael Keegan, Mondex has a number of key accomplishments, including:

o Multos, the most robust, flexible, and secure smart card platform in the market today. It is the only operating system for smart cards to have been certified with the prestigious Itsec Level E6 security rating, the highest available. Multos is an open platform, which enables a number of different, independently functioning applications to reside on a single card simultaneously. To date, more than six million smart cards have been issued on the Multos platform, and more than 75 issuers are now committed to issuing 20 million additional Multos smart cards. More than 70 companies currently supply Multos-related products and services.

o The Mondex certification authority. Located in a highly secure facility, this system maintains best-in-class security and operations capabilities. It manages a well-established process for chip security and analysis. The certification authority handles issuance of certificates globally for the Multos "load and delete" mechanism, Mondex e-cash, and the MasterCard M/Chip family of payment applications.

o Mondex electronic cash. The most complete and fully developed electronic cash proposition in the marketplace today, Mondex electronic cash offers a number of unique benefits, including: its status as the only truly global and interoperable electronic cash product available, multicurrency capability, the only card-to-card payment capability, offline transactions with immediate value transfer, and the highest security available.

With virtually no per-transaction cost, Mondex cash offers essentially zero marginal cost for the issuer. Mondex electronic cash has been franchised or licensed for use in 55 countries and territories around the world. There are approximately 30 Mondex implementations underway, with additional activity expected over the coming year.

To reiterate, the proposed acquisition provides MasterCard's member financial institutions with access to the best and most secure choices available in the marketplace and strengthens MasterCard's overall position in smart card development by leveraging Mondex's technological expertise under one roof. Under MasterCard's management, these assets will be fully available to help MasterCard members and Mondex franchise holders develop best-in-class smart card programs.

Art Kranzley
Senior vice president
MasterCard International
Purchase, N.Y.

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