International Credit Cards Using Convex Letter System

Hitachi Capital announced that it has begun issuing international credit cards using the convex letter system described below.

1.World's first convex letter system

Convex letter system is a technology for creating convex letters on the card surface by using a special resin. Maxell Seiki, Ltd. (located in Otokuni-gun, Kyoto, and president, Shingo Ashida) developed and obtained a patent for the system.

Features

(1)	Unlike conventional embossing that presses the card itself, the convex letter system creates no indentations on the reverse side of the card that distort photographs and characters on the reverse side of the card.
(2)	The convex letter system does not disconnect the antenna coil, limit wiring space, or damage the chip built into contactless IC cards.
(3)	A special process on the printing layer at Maxell Seiki's state-of-the-art security plant ensures that the convex letters do not peel off from the card.

2.Future plans

The credit card will be issued by Hitachi Card Service Corp. (located in Minato-ku, Tokyo, president, Masatsugu Hori), which is our company's consolidated subsidiary. Since 1999, Hitachi Card Service has issued some 140,000 employee identification cards with credit card function primarily to Hitachi group employees. These cards are effective for streamlining intracompany settlements and improving security.
Hitachi Card Service issued corporate credit cards (international credit cards bearing the MasterCard®  brand that are accepted at 22 million MasterCard acceptance locations around the world) implementing the convex letter system for employees of Hitachi Maxell Corp. (located in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, president, Norio Akai).
Note: MasterCard®  is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Inc.
Hitachi Capital is prepared to issue additional high function cards using the convex letter system. As a tentative target, Hitachi Capital aims to issue 100,000 cards using the convex letter system in fiscal year 2005.