This development results in CardInk becoming the first commercially available data preparation solution capable of performing secure data generation and key management for MICA MULTOS cards during card issuance. Cryptomathic already has a customer scheduled to take delivery of this solution in Europe in December 2007.

MICA was launched by MasterCard in November 2007 and is an integrated contact and contactless EMV chip card payment application which supports both M/Chip 4 and MasterCard PayPass for issuing banks using the MULTOS smart card platform. It is intended to simplify the issuance of combined M/Chip contact and PayPass M/Chip contactless cards while offering a high speed and secure solution for the convenience and confidence of issuers and cardholders alike.

Peter Landrock, Executive Chairman of Cryptomathic, adds: "We are delighted to be the first data preparation vendor to support the new functionality. It clearly shows our ability to be the first to market with new technologies which simplify the issuing process and thereby increase the rate of EMV adoption in the payment space for both contact and contactless applications."