SET Continues to Gain Industry Support.

PURCHASE, N.Y. and SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1998--

Microsoft Joins Other Leading Vendors and Takes the Next Step in Supporting the SET(TM) Wallet Standard to Ease Consumer Worries About Internet Security and Foster Widespread Growth of Electronic Commerce

SET Secure Electronic Transaction(TM) LLC (SETCo), the consortium that manages and promotes the Secure Electronic Transaction standard, announced that software industry support is growing and will facilitate global adoption and deployment of SET technology. Microsoft Corp. is the most recent vendor to enter into compliance testing for the SET 1.0 standard and joins 18 other leading software vendors currently supporting SET.

The SET standard provides for a high level of privacy, security, and authentication for payment card transactions made over the Internet. SETCo established a compliance program earlier this year to ensure global consistency and to help facilitate interoperability around the world. This program has attracted 18 software vendors from several countries who are committed to implementing SET in this manner. These vendors provide wallets, merchant payment software, payment gateways, or certificate servers.

Microsoft has enrolled the latest version of the Microsoft Wallet, which is currently under development, in this compliance testing program for the SET 1.0 standard. The Microsoft Wallet will help foster acceptance of SET in the online world among consumers, banks, and merchants. The Microsoft Wallet is electronic payment software for PCs, designed by Microsoft Corp. to work with the Windows operating system, and supports the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser as well as other leading Internet browsers. The Microsoft Wallet securely stores private user information, including payment cards, addresses, and other transactional information. Earlier versions of the Microsoft Wallet, which did not have native support for SET, have been available to users of Windows since early 1997.

"The core of our commerce strategy is to provide enabling commerce technologies for our customers as part of our client and server platform," said Jean Cho, group product manager, Microsoft commerce marketing. "Microsoft is adding support for the SET standard to the Microsoft Wallet because we want to make online payment easier and more secure in Windows."

Art Kranzley, MasterCard's senior vice president of electronic commerce said, "With the participation of an industry leader like Microsoft, we are all-the-more closer to establishing SET as the global standard for online commerce. By working with MasterCard, Visa, and other payments industry leaders, to assure the security of online transactions, Microsoft is helping open up the world of electronic commerce to consumers across the globe."

By supporting SET, Microsoft is supporting the existing trusted relationships that financial institutions have with their cardholders and merchants. This combination should help to accelerate market adoption and foster growth in electronic commerce," said Steve Herz, senior vice president, Internet Commerce - Visa International.

The compliance tests are key in ensuring that the many solutions that are being brought to market will adhere to a common standard, regardless of platform or source. Consumers will be able to shop online with greater confidence and security as they begin to use payment software that has successfully completed SET compliance testing.

SET compliance comprises a series of tests for four SET applications: the wallet software, which performs both merchant authentication and initiation of secure payments and also holds the cardholder's credit/debit or charge card information; the merchant payment acceptance software, which implements SET at merchant Web sites, enables the authentication of the merchant and implements a standard payment process; the acquirers' payment gateway software, which allows transactions to flow securely from the Internet to the payment networks; and the certificate authority software used in issuing digital certificates.

Presently, four software wallets have passed the SETCo compliance tests and been awarded the SET compliance trademark. These are GlobeSet, Trintech, Spyrus/Terisa, and VeriFone. Additionally, GlobeSet's merchant and certificate server have also been awarded the SET trademark. Several other vendors and components are expected to complete the compliance process over the next few months. This growth in SET-compliant software availability is expected to stimulate global adoption of SET.

SET Secure Electronic Transaction LLC (commonly referred to as SETCo) was established by Visa and MasterCard in December 1997 as a legal entity to manage and promote the global adoption of SET. For more information about SETCo and SET, visit www.setco.org.

    CONTACT: SETCo Contacts
              MasterCard International: Paul Vertucci, 914/249-5028
              Visa International: Ryan Mikolasik, 650/432-5769