NEWS

E-PASS Sues Visa for Patent Infringement

E-PASS Technologies, Inc. filed a patent infringement action against Visa International and Visa USA in Federal Court in Oakland, Calif. The complaint states that Hardy Hennige, inventor of the E-PASS patents, met with Visa personnel at Visa headquarters in Feb. 2000 to discuss his patented ideas for a portable e-commerce device. After the meeting, Hennige said he never heard from Visa again. About a year later at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show, Hennige claims that a Visa and PALM representative demonstrated one of the several E-PASS patented inventions he had previously presented to Visa. Visa's answer to the complaint was not available at press time.

Consumers May Spend Less this Season, Survey Says

Americans plan to spend less this holiday season than last year, according to a new survey by Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc. According to the poll of nearly 1,000 U.S. consumers:

• 58% said they would spend less than they did last year
• 50% said the cutbacks are due to current economic conditions
• 25% said they did not use credit to buy gifts last year
• 6% said they charged between $750 and $1,000 last year for gifts
• 5.5% said they charged more than $1,000 on credit last year for gifts
• 22% said they typically charge between $300 and $500 during the holidays

For more information on holiday spending forecasts visit www.ConsolidatedCredit.org.

Citigroup Completes Purchase of Sears Credit Cards

Citigroup announced it completed its purchase of Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s credit card portfolio, paying about $3.2 billion for it. About $2.9 billion of this amount is from a 10% premium for the $28.6 billion in receivables that Sears held on its private label and bankcard portfolios. Included in the purchase price was the assumption of $10.4 billion in securitized debt and other liabilities. Citi also paid Sears about $300 million for business facilities, employees and other assets related to credit card business.

Citi said that there would be no immediate changes to the Sears card programs or operations. The two companies have also entered into a multi-year marketing and servicing agreement across a range of each company's businesses, products and services.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

EXS Moves to Atlanta

Electronic Exchange Systems (EXS) opened an additional office located in Atlanta, which will serve as EXS' sales and marketing headquarters. The company said it closed its Florida office and opened the Atlanta office to offer employees, customers and partners a more convenient and centralized location. The Atlanta office will initially employ eight people; the company hopes to increase its staff to 15 by summer 2004. EXS also has an office located in Newport Beach, Calif.

Vital Certifies Hypercom T7Plus

Vital Processing Services has awarded a Class-A certification to its retail and restaurant application for credit, debit and POS check service acceptance on Hypercom Corp.'s T7Plus card payment terminal.

AmEx Awarded Patent for Transparent Cards

The U.S. Patent Office awarded American Express Co. U.S. Patent No. 6,581,839 for its clear card technology. American Express said this is the first time a card issuer has successfully developed transparent and translucent card products to be used with infrared-beaming machines, such as ATMs.

The technology is used for American Express' Blue, Blue Cash and several other card products. The company introduced the first transparent card product in the U.S. in 2002 with Blue.

PARTNERSHIPS

ABN AMRO Renews with Michigan Restaurants

ABN AMRO Merchant Services, LLC (AAMS), a joint venture of LaSalle Bank Corp. and National Processing Company, LLC, renewed a processing agreement with the Michigan Restaurant Association. Under the terms of the agreement, AAMS will continue providing credit card authorization and settlement services for Michigan Restaurant Association members.

Access ATM and PCS Join Forces

Access ATM, Inc., a national ATM service provider, and Petroleum Card Services, Inc. (PCS), a pay-at-the-pump credit card processing service provider, have partnered as distributor alliances. Petroleum Card Services will market ATM and pay-at-the-pump processing services to its distributors and merchants; it will also enable Access ATM to offer its distributors pay-at-the-pump processing services. The alliance creates additional sales and residual income streams by offering multiple services to the same target markets.

Biometric Check Cashing in 176 More Stores

BI-LO will use BioPay's Paycheck Secure, a biometric check cashing identification system, in 176 of its supermarket locations throughout the southeast to help prevent the cashing of fraudulent checks. BI-LO operates 300 supermarkets in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee and employs 27,000 people. BI-LO had tested BioPay's solution in 26 stores beginning in June.

Cardtronics Chooses POSLink

POSLink, local services subsidiary of Transaction Network Services (TNS), will provide Cardtronics with low-cost, reliable local services to help it consolidate dial-line access and reduce network communications costs. Cardtronics currently owns and/or manages more than 12,500 ATMs. TNS offers local telephone services to merchants and ATM owners through POSLink.

Fifth Third to Offer SLIM CD

Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions agreed to distribute SLIM CD Inc.'s merchant credit card processing software (SLIM CD). The software supports both credit and online debit transactions for merchants processing on the Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions platform.

Givex Announces Technology Partners

Givex Corp. announced three new partners at the end of October 2003. SIVA Corp. will integrate Givex's gift card and loyalty services into the iSIVA point-of-sale and back office products. Tiosk announced plans to integrate Givex's gift card and loyalty services into its Tiosk Card Issuing Kiosk Systems.

And Fresh Enterprises Inc., owner and operator of Baja Fresh Mexican Grill, selected Givex as its gift card technology provider. About 260 Baja Fresh locations will sell gift cards using the Givex-enabled MICROS 3700 POS system and Ingenico's eN-Touch 3000 POS terminals.

NCFS Helping with Liberty Fitness' Payments

Liberty Fitness Centers selected National Cash Flow Systems, Inc. (NCFS) to help it implement an integrated payment platform for each of its franchisee U.S. locations. NCFS provides electronic payment solutions such as recurring payments, electronic Internet or telephone payments, electronic conversion of accounts receivable payments and stored value card transactions. Liberty Fitness is a women's fitness and weight loss franchise with more than 60 U.S. locations.

Paymetric, TransFirst Offering Cardinal Centinel

In separate partnership agreements, Paymetric, Inc. and Dallas-based TransFirst agreed to offer Cardinal Commerce Corp.'s payment authentication software, Cardinal Centinel, to its online merchant customers.

Cardinal Centinel was designed for acquiring banks, merchant service providers and their merchants. The software reduces the number of online fraudulent transactions and guarantees payment to online merchants using it, while protecting the accounts of cardholders. The software includes Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode and JCB's J/Smart payment authentication in one solution.

ACQUISITIONS

eFunds Acquires Oasis Technology

eFunds Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Oasis Technology, LTD., a private payment software company, for approximately $28 million to be paid in cash. Oasis has 150 customers in 75 countries. eFunds intends to maintain and enhance CONNEX, its EFT software application, and integrate key components of Oasis' open platform solution.

Gilson & Associates Bought by VECTORsgi

VECTORsgi (formerly Sterling Commerce's Banking Systems Division) acquired Atlanta-based Gilson & Associates. VECTORsgi, founded in 1976, provides financial transaction processing, image exchange, item processing, dispute resolution and e-commerce solutions to financial institutions. Gilson & Associates is an item processing technology company that provides consulting and software solutions to the banking industry. Under the acquisition, all members of Gilson & Associates have accepted positions with VECTORsgi and will maintain their offices in Atlanta. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

APPOINTMENTS

Global Payments Hires SVP for Planning

Global Payments Inc. hired Jeffery B. Baker as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. Baker most recently served as Principal and Senior Research Analyst, U. S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Corp. He also has been a Vice President and Senior Research Analyst with W. R. Hambrecht and Company; a Director with SunTrust Equitable Securities, Inc.; and Assistant Vice President with Principal Financial Securities, Inc.

TransFirst Names Director of Agent Bank Sales

Dallas-based TransFirst named Donna J. Burns to the position of Executive Director of Agent Bank Sales for the company's southeast region. Burns has more than two decades of experience in the sales and service industries. She previously worked at First Tennessee Bank, located in Memphis, Tenn. where she managed regional support center and regional sales managers and representatives. Prior to First Tennessee, Burns held management positions with Northwest Safeline and Halls Publishing Co.

Visa Appoints Commercial Solutions SVP

Visa International named Aliza Knox to head its global commercial solutions division as Senior Vice President, Visa Commercial Solutions. Knox has more than two decades of experience in financial services. Knox joined Visa in 2002 to manage the alignment of product development and business strategies.

Smart Card Alliance Elects 2004 Board

The Smart Card Alliance (SCA) elected new members to its Board of Directors for 2004. Kevin Gillick was elected Chairman. Gillick serves as head of corporate marketing for the Datacard Group. He has served on the SCA's Board of Directors since 1999. The other officers of the executive committee of the 18-member board are:

• Vice Chairman, Bryan Ichikawa, Unisys
• Treasurer, Bob Wilberger, Northrop Grumman
• Secretary, Linda Brown, Infineon Technologies
• Assistant Treasurer, Keith Saunders, MasterCard Int'l.
• Assistant Secretary, Alex Giakoumis, Atmel Corporation
• Technology Vice Chair, Gilles Lisimaque, Gemplus

MasterCard Appoints CFO

MasterCard International promoted Chris A. McWilton to the position of Chief Financial Officer. McWilton will report to MasterCard's President and CEO, Robert Selander, and will serve as a member of the Executive Management Group. McWilton joined MasterCard in January 2003 as Corporate Controller; he has been acting as interim CFO.

Prior to joining MasterCard, McWilton was a partner at KPMG LLP, where he headed the Information, Communications and Entertainment practice of the New York office.

Heartland Adds New Board Member

Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. appointed Jonathan Palmer to its Board of Directors. Palmer has more than 37 years of experience in the financial services industry in senior operating and strategic roles.

He has worked at Vital Processing Services, Wellspring Resources, Barnett Banks, Shearson Lehman Brothers and Fidelity Bank. Palmer most recently served as President and CEO of Vital.

Pay By Touch Appoints Exec Team and Board

Pay By Touch (formerly known as Solidus Networks, Inc.), provider of biometric authentication at the point-of-sale, recently announced its new executive management team and members of its Board of Directors:

• John Rogers, President, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors
• Craig Ramsey, CEO and member of the Board of Directors
• Brian Miller, EVP Strategic Alliances and member of the Board of Directors
• Nhan Nguyen, Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer
• Eric Bachman, Chief Operating Officer
• David Siminoff, CFO
• Caroline McNally, Chief Marketing Officer
• Steve Zelinger, General Counsel
• Jon S. Siegal, VP Sales, Americas

Eula Adams, former Senior Executive VP for First Data Corp., and Robert Shaw, Chairman and CEO of ArcSight, will also serve as members of Pay By Touch's Board of Directors.