MasterCard International announced today that more than one million SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) digital wallets have been issued worldwide by member banks since the protocol's general availability in mid-1997. SET, jointly developed by MasterCard, Visa, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, GTE, RSA, SAIC, Terisa and VeriSign, uses digital certificates and public-key cryptography to authenticate cardholders, merchants and acquirers in remote payment transactions over the open Internet.

MasterCard's Banknet payment network and global authorization systems have completed Year 2000 remediation and are now in the validation phase, with full member-bank certification expected by March 31, 1999. President and Chief Executive Officer Robert W. Selander noted that the association has invested more than $50 million in the Y2K compliance program since 1996.

Mondex International, the smart card joint venture majority-owned by MasterCard since 1996, reported significant growth in its electronic cash pilot programs. The Hong Kong deployment in partnership with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank has issued 50,000 reloadable chip cards since launch, while university programs at Exeter and Edinburgh continue to expand.

The Cirrus ATM network, the world's largest, now reaches more than 500,000 cash machines in 86 countries, MasterCard announced. Maestro online debit cards and MasterCard credit cards both access the Cirrus network for cash withdrawal in local currency.