PKO Bank Polski Selects Gemalto for First Large-Scale Rollout of EMV Contactless Payment Cards in Poland

Amsterdam - Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, announces it has been selected by PKO Bank Polski for the migration of its entire portfolio of Visa debit cards for individual clients, from magnetic stripe technology straight to EMV contactless. PKO Bank Polski S.A. is the largest financial institution in Poland serving more than 8.5 million customers, and with the largest sales network - 1,211 branches and 1,938 agencies across the country. Mass deployment started in September 2010 and the bank plans to issue around 6.5 million Visa payWave cards to its customers by the end of 2011.

PKO Bank Polski S.A. is the first bank in Poland to convert an entire card portfolio to contactless, leading the way to the introduction of this new technology in the country. The massive deployment of Visa payWave is part of PKO BP’s strategy to offer innovative products to its customers and to boost the development of cashless transactions in Poland. Gemalto supports PKO Bank Polski all the way through the project, with its global expertise in both EMV and EMV contactless deployments.

In addition to the security of EMV, the card provides a new and simple way to pay for purchases up to 50 Polish Zloty (€12.5, USD17). PKO BP customers will benefit from the speed and convenience of contactless in thousands of acceptance points, at department stores, fast-food restaurants, cinemas, bookstores or pharmacies.

“For such a massive rollout, in such a short period of time, we needed a reliable partner with a proven track record in EMV contactless deployments and a strong presence in Poland,” commented Katarzyna Sosin, director of Center for credit cards and cards transactions at PKO Bank Polski. “Spurred by the hefty challenge, the Gemalto team provided premium quality services which enable our migration program to unfold smoothly.”

“Gemalto is proud to accompany PKO Bank Polski for Poland’s first large-scale rollout of contactless cards, combining the effective sharing of the world best practices we’ve accumulated over time and our strong industrial capability,” added Philippe Cambriel, Executive Vice-President, Gemalto. “Gemalto’s unrivalled experience in dual interface card implementation across Asia, Europe and the Americas is a key asset to ensure this remarkable success of PKO BP’s introduction of Visa payWave.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2009 annual revenues of €1.65 billion, and over 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 41 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere—has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports and USB tokens for online identity protection. Moreover Gemalto delivers on emerging applications related to the ‘Internet of things’ by supplying wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM) for machine-to-machine communication. To complete these solutions we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information please visit www.gemalto.com.