Tokyo and London--An Anglo-Japanese consortium bringing together ID Data Systems Limited of the UK and Toshiba Corporation and Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. of Japan today announced that it has won a major order to supply IC cards to Barclays Bank Group, one of Britain's leading commercial bank groups.

Under the terms of an agreement announced today, the consortium will manufacture and supply Barclays Bank Group with five million IC cards in the eighteen months from July this year. The figure represents 50% of Barclays' requirement during the period.

ID Data, Toshiba and Toppan have established a joint venture company, TTI Card Technology Europe Ltd. that will support the business with Barclays and promote sales and marketing of IC cards throughout Europe.

Toshiba will supply the IC chips and the card operating system, Toppan will provide IC-card packaging and printing technologies, and ID Data will manufacture the cards at its U.K. production facility.

The selection of the Anglo-Japanese consortium as a key supplier to Barclays reflects the strengths of each of its members. On the Japanese side, Toshiba has long contributed to IC-card development, particularly in the area of chip technology and system integration, and Toppan is respected for its capabilities in IC card packaging and printing. UK-based ID Data is a highly experienced manufacturer of magnetic-stripe cards.

Barclaycard is looking forward to developing technical and strategic partnerships with TTI in the supply of chip cards. Barry Fergus commented on the partnership: "We are excited about working with Toshiba, Toppan and ID Data in developing innovative and imaginative usage of chip cards in the coming years".

Last July, the U.K.'s Association for Payment Clearing Services, citing advantages of the greater memory capacity and better security, decided to replace all cash cards, debit cards and credit cards issued in the U.K. with IC cards. With over 100 million magnetic stripe cards now in use, the migration is expected to take several years.

Once established, TTI will build on the success in winning the Barclays order to promote its presence in the U.K. and other European markets. The three partners have set themselves a target of 30% of the market, and want to see annual sales reach 4,968.6 million Yen (26 million pounds Stirling) by in 2003. Toppan and Toshiba also expect the Barclays order to have a positive influence on promoting the IC-card business in Japan.

Outline of TTI

About ID Data Systems
ID Data Systems is the UK's leading independent card and card services company, with its headquarters in Northamptonshire. ID Data provide a wide range of solutions to leading financial service organisations and retail clients. It has a proven track record in producing complete end-to-end card based systems to an increasingly wide range of customers, both in the UK and overseas.

About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products and power systems. The company's integration of these wide-ranging capabilities assures its position as an innovator in multimedia components, products and systems. Toshiba has 186,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of over US$ 40 billion.
Home page: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm

Toppan boiler plate

Formed in 1900, Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. has recorded record growth and become a leader in Japan's printing industry. The company has used the know-how acquired through nearly a century of experience to expand the scope of its business operations. Today, the company's fields of business include securities and cards, commercial printing, publications printing, packaging materials, electronics, business forms and multimedia.