Tokyo, September 25, 2002 -JCB International Co., Ltd., the international arm of major Japanese credit card company JCB Co. Ltd., has successfully started an EMV smart cards issuing program in Taiwan. Taipei Bank, which is one of 30 JCB card issuers in Taiwan, has begun issuing the smart cards for about 3,000 employees of First International Computers Inc. (FIC). FIC is one of the world's leading companies in the design and production of motherboards, PC systems, and servers. The National Credit Card Center (NCCC) in Taiwan is providing support for the smart cards issuing.

The FIC Employee Smart Cards are hybrid cards with both contact and contactless chips in a single card. The smart cards provide five functions: the credit payment, the office building access control, the office car park access control, the company cafeteria payment and the employee identification.

The contact chip with the JCB EMV credit payment application J/Smart provides superior protection against fraud. The contactless chip Mifare contains an access control function that will ensure both high security and speedy access to the office building and the office car park. It also brings the speedy payment system at the company cafeteria. The smart cards have a photograph of the cardholder and are used as employee identification cards.

In the past five years in Taiwan, the number of JCB cardmembers has grown 1,000% to 1.2 million and the number of merchants has doubled to 140 thousand. Five NCCC member banks began JCB card issuance in 1994, and 25 other banks has followed. JCB has made rapid progress with both issuing and acquiring and can compare favorably with other payment brands in Taiwan market in recent years.

In Taiwan, the trend is aggressive to introduce smart cards in order to prevent fraud losses and to provide multiple services. Starting with the Taipei Bank/FIC smart cards issuance, JCB has been negotiating with various sectors to form the alliances by using chip technology, including the hybrid cards. JCB has already established plans for smart cards with the post-payment of transit fares, such as bus, subway and train, as well as credit card function in Japan. This type of smart card is suitable for Taiwan market as well. JCB will promote EMV smart card issuing projects to meet various needs of both business and public sectors that will strengthen its presence further in Taiwan.

About JCB Co., Ltd.
JCB Co., Ltd. is an international brand and the largest card issuer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in 1961 and began expanding overseas in 1981. Its merchant network includes 9.78 million merchants and spans 189 countries and territories, and serves 42 million cardmembers worldwide. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with more than 300 leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase merchant coverage.
For further information, please visit the JCB International homepage at
http://www.jcbinternational.com.