David Kober                                                              Tim Klabunde                          
ABnote Group                                                           Datacard Group
+ 1 201-592-3400                                                     +1 952.988.1248
kober@americanbanknote.com                                 tim_klabunde@datacard.com

ABnote and Datacard Group PARTNER TO STRENGTHEN CRITICAL NFC TECHNOLOGIES

Two industry leaders align technologies to further enhance NFC ecosystem

Fort Lee, New Jersey and Minnetonka, Minnesota - November 3, 2008 –ABnote and Datacard Group are pleased to introduce Redwave™ Solutions.  Redwave Solutions combines the expertise of two world-class companies to create a global trusted service manager for the Near Field Communications (NFC) ecosystem.

Redwave will offer both NFC application and support services to a network of value added resellers and secure processing centers.

“We believe that by combining the industry proven software technology from Datacard Group with the worldwide partner network of secure payment card industry (PCI) compliant data centers that form ABnote, Redwave is creating the ultimate NFC market accelerator”, says Steven Singer, CEO of the ABnote Group. 

Based on components of Datacard® Affina® Issuance Platform Software, which has been a driver of financial smart card growth, Redwave technologies will support partner applications associated with NFC devices such as mobile phones, smart posters and other RF enabled devices.

“Redwave provides an industry-wide answer to the global NFC ecosystem challenges of trust, security and interoperability,” says Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Datacard Group. “Redwave is completely unique to the industry.” 

John Ekers, SVP Technology and Product Marketing for the ABnote Group, has been named CEO of Redwave Solutions. 

ABnote and Datacard Group have locations that span the globe in order to support the initiatives of Redwave Solutions and the growing need of advanced NFC technologies.

About ABnote
American Banknote Corporation is a holding company and the parent of the ABnote Group, which operates through its subsidiary companies: American Banknote S.A. in Brazil, Transtex S.A. in Argentina, Leigh Mardon in Australia, ABnote NZ in New Zealand, CPS Technologies in France, ABnote Europe, s.r.o. in the Czech Republic, and American Bank Note Company in the United States. ABnote, which traces its founding to 1795 and American patriot Paul Revere, is a global supplier of secure documents, services and systems. Principal products include plastic cards, phone cards, paper certificates, lottery tickets, passports, state titles, certificates of origin, stock certificates, and checks. Services include print production, personalization, secure warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment.  (www.americanbanknote.com)
About Datacard Group
Datacard Group offers the world’s best-selling secure ID and card personalization solutions. The company’s portfolio includes systems for high-volume card issuance, card delivery and fulfillment, secure ID issuance and passport production, plus extensive service and supply offerings. Datacard Group serves customers in more than 120 countries (www.datacard.com).