The award was bestowed by the European Payments Consulting Association (EPCA) and European Card Review Innovation Awards. The award ceremony was held at the PlusCON/EPCA Conference held in Copenhagen this week.

The EPCA panel of consultants judged entries on their outstanding contribution to Europe's payments business during 2004. They assessed entries against a number of performance criteria including innovation, design, customer benefits, efficiencies, value for money, ease of implementation and marketing and promotion.

OneSMART PayPass combines both contact and contactless interfaces on one chip to provide a robust and feature-rich product. OneSMART PayPass is centered around MasterCard M/Chip™ 4, a highly flexible EMV-based smart card application for credit and debit cards.

MasterCard's work in the contactless arena has demonstrated that contactless payments can be most powerful in places where speed is of the essence – such as in quick-serve restaurants, petrol stations and tollways. Cardholders simply tap their PayPass-enabled card on the reader and are on their way. MasterCard's OneSMART PayPass was introduced in November 2004, as the industry's first dual-interface contactless EMV payments solution.

“OneSMART PayPass represents the new generation in contactless smart card payments,” said Bruno Carpreau, product manager of OneSMART PayPass. “Trials in the United States have already shown us that MasterCard PayPass has the potential to replace cash with card payments. In 2004 we introduced OneSMART PayPass to enable our customers in regions where EMV smart cards predominate, such as Europe, to reap the benefits offered by contactless payments. We're currently working with customers and partners on a number of trials which we hope to reveal here in Europe later this year.”

Commenting on the award, Toni Merschen, head of MasterCard International's Chip Centre of Excellence said, “We're striving to work with the industry to make sure we can all benefit from the opportunity behind contactless payments, and today's award is a fine recognition not only for the work undertaken by the global team here within MasterCard but more importantly from partners, the vendors and members already working with us on OneSMART PayPass implementation projects around the world. Together we're striving to make innovation the driver to our combined success.”

“This is the first year that the European Payments Consulting Association (EPCA) and European Card Review (ECR) have awarded the EPCA/ECR Excellence in Payments Innovation Awards,” said Peter Jones, EPCA Chairman. “We were delighted to receive 39 applications across the five award categories. We have awarded MasterCard's OneSMART PayPass First Prize for the Most Innovative Consumer Product because we considered OneSMART PayPass had the greatest potential to improve the consumer experience in fast food and low value transaction sectors.”

How MasterCard OneSMART PayPass Works – OneSMART PayPass cards have a chip and an antenna embedded in their plastic. When a card is brought in close proximity to a PayPass-enabled reader, it uses radio frequency technology to exchange transaction details with the PayPass reader. PayPass is based on the global ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443 radio frequency technology standards.

Once payment details have been captured by the terminal, they are processed through the MasterCard acceptance network in the same way as a contact chip payment. The transaction is authorized either online by the issuer host or offline by the card. The card's on-chip risk management capabilities can also accomplish Card Authentication (CAM) offline. To further speed up a PayPass transaction, CVM requirements, such as signature or PIN, may be waived for low-risk, low-value purchases. With OneSMART PayPass, a consumer can now 'tap and go', making the transaction simpler and faster than cash.

PayPass has already demonstrated through trials that it helps merchants to:
o Speed customers through the checkout process;
o Increase average transaction amounts spent (as compared to cash);
o Provide a reliable, trusted payment method that works well in quick-pay environments;
o Attract new customers and keep them coming back.

Beyond its speed benefits, PayPass helps merchants lower their costs and improve productivity. As employees handle and process less cash, they can focus on providing an improved overall customer experience. Accepting PayPass-enabled transactions does not require expensive changes at a merchant's point-of-sale. They can add a low-cost PayPass reader to an existing terminal or introduce an integrated terminal that transacts with a tap, dip or swipe of a card. Either way, merchants can leverage their investment in their current EMV acceptance infrastructure while benefiting from the additional speed that PayPass brings to check-out.

About MasterCard Europe
MasterCard Europe is the European regional office of MasterCard International. With headquarters in Waterloo, Belgium, MasterCard Europe works with 51 European countries organized administratively into four customer areas: northern, central, eastern and southern. Through its network of local offices, MasterCard Europe can understand and meet the diverse needs of members in the very different types of markets throughout Europe, enabling people to do business in their own way in their own language.

About MasterCard International
MasterCard International is a leading global payments solutions company that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our global members' credit, deposit access, electronic cash, business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment cards brands including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus® and serves financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless® advertising campaign is now seen in 96 countries and in 48 languages, giving the MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope. For more information go to www.mastercardinternational.com or refer to our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.