FIME and FEIMA Start JCB Smart Card Interoperability Testing.

Tokyo, Japan, Aug 12, 2005 - (JCN Newswire) - JCB, a leading international payment brand, is pleased to announce that FIME S.A., an expert and leader in testing IC technologies, and its Asian branch, FEIMA, based in Taiwan, now support JCB J/Smart(TM) interoperability testing between cards and terminals. J/Smart is JCB's own credit application for smart cards compliant with EMV. Interoperability testing is performed at this new testing environment with EMV compliant terminals, and significantly contributes to smoother deployment and future implementations of J/Smart cards.

FIME and FEIMA have a terminal platform that represents about 60% of the EMV terminals now in the field, which is regularly updated with new terminal models.

"We are very happy to partner with FIME and FEIMA, among the world's leading testing service providers, to facilitate the interaoperability testing that makes sure that new J/Smart cards actually work at the same terminals as deployed in the field", said Mr. Arata Matsutani, Senior Vice President, Chip Card Issuance, Advanced Technologies, JCB. "In chip card implementation where interoperability is an important issue, reducing the risk of any potential problems is an indispensable step in producing new cards", he added.

JCB is actively participating in the on-going EMV migration in the global market, and has upgraded the J/Smart certification process to further acceptance of J/Smart cards around the world. In addition, JCB last year acquired one-third ownership of EMVCo in order to maintain the EMV specification standards for international interoperability of smart card payment systems. As EMV standards spread in global markets, JCB's 350 existing business partners will be joined by increasing numbers of new acquirers in accepting the JCB smart card.

About FIME

FIME, founded in 1962, is an independent service company and has leading test centres based in Caen (France) and Taipei (Taiwan), specialising in certification tests for cards and terminals (ISO 7816, EMV, ISO 14443). These ISO17025 certified laboratories operate mainly in the electronic payment system, transport, identity and health sectors. The FIME/FEIMA laboratories, leaders in EMV tests, are today notably accredited by MasterCard International, Visa International and Syndicat des Transports d'Ile de France (STIF).

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