Pay By Touch And Discover Financial Services To Jointly Market Use Of Finger-Scanning Technology To Access Discover® Card Accounts

August 16, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO – (August 16, 2004)— Pay By Touch™ today announced it has entered into a strategic alliance with Discover Financial Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD). The new alliance is expected to increase daily usage of Discover® Card at retail point of sale and drive adoption of Pay By Touch, a payment service that allows shoppers to pay with the touch of a finger.

Under the agreement, Discover Financial Services will be one of the first financial services companies to be associated with a viable biometric payment option – offering customers more convenience, flexibility and security with their daily purchases.

“This is a mutually beneficial alliance because it allows Pay By Touch customers to take advantage of Discover Card's benefits, and Discover Cardmembers the option for a faster, more secure way to pay,” said Craig Ramsey, chief executive officer of Pay By Touch.

“Consumers are always looking for quick and convenient payment options, which has contributed to the success of our own Discover 2GO® Card, the first key chain credit card in the industry,” said Diane Offereins, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Discover Financial Services. “By teaming up with Pay By Touch, we can continue to provide our more than 50 million Cardmembers with the latest in payment technology by literally putting all of Discover Card's benefits at their fingertips,” added Offereins.

The one-time Pay By Touch enrollment is very simple and takes just a few minutes. Shoppers scan their finger, enter a search code, swipe rewards cards and/or Discover Card (or other payment cards) and add their checking account information to build a personal Pay By Touch wallet, which is stored at secure IBM data centers.

The Pay By Touch finger scanning technology does not store actual fingerprints; instead, it creates a set of 40 data points that cannot be reverse-engineered to a fingerprint. The data points are then converted into a mathematical equation that allows for a secure identity match at retail point of sale. Once enrolled – no matter what store or state they are in – customers can simply scan their finger and select a preferred payment method every time they pay.

About Pay By Touch
Headquartered in San Francisco, Pay By Touch is a free consumer payment service that allows shoppers to pay for purchases using a finger scan to access their financial accounts and loyalty programs. With Pay By Touch, the checkout process is faster, more convenient, and more secure than other payment methods. It eliminates the need to present checks and IDs, credit, debit, membership, or loyalty cards at the point of sale. For additional information, visit www.paybytouch.com.

About Discover Financial Services
Discover Financial Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD), operates the Discover Card and the Discover Network for its more than 50 million Cardmembers. The Discover Network is the largest independent credit card network in the United States with approximately 4 million merchant and cash access locations. For more information, visit www.discovercard.com.