IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

ETA Annual Meeting Discount For 1099 MLSs

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) said it is expanding a special discount for Merchant Level Salespeople (MLSs) on one-day registration rates for its Annual Meeting and Expo in Las Vegas, April 20 -22, 2004. This is a one-time offer that enables any MLS who is a 1099 independent contractor to attend one day of the ETA's annual meeting for $185. Those who are eligible may chose to attend the conference on either Wednesday, April 21 or Thursday, April 22. This discount is not available for more than one day.

This announcement follows the recent introduction of the ETA Affiliate Service Provider program that allows 1099 status MLSs access to discounts on a range of ETA products and services.

NEWS

E-Commerce Sales Report for Q4 2003

The Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that Q4 2003 retail e-commerce sales (not adjusted for seasonal, holiday and trading-day differences) totaled $17.2 billion, an increase of 25.1% from Q4 2002 and an increase of 29.7% from the previous quarter. E-commerce sales accounted for 1.9% of total retail sales in Q4 2003.

Overall retail sales totaled $918.2 billion, an increase of 6.2% from the same period a year ago and an increase of 5.2% from the third quarter of 2003. The department began tracking e-commerce sales in 1999.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Global Axcess Approved for CISP

Global Axcess Corp.'s wholly owned subsidiary, EFT Integration, Inc., is now compliant with Visa's Card Information Security Program (CISP). CISP defines a standard for securing Visa cardholder data, wherever it is located. CISP compliance has been required of all entities storing, processing, or transmitting Visa cardholder data.

ID Theft Assistance Corp. Created

The Financial Services Roundtable and BITS have formed the Identity Theft Assistance Corporation, a non-profit industry consortium that will pilot the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC), along with Wells Fargo and Co. The ITAC's services, provided at no cost to victims, are intended to help victims of identity theft. Forty-seven of the nation's largest financial institutions are founding members of the ITAC.

The Financial Services Roundtable (www.fsround.org) represents 100 of the largest integrated financial services companies. BITS (www.bitsinfo.org) was created in 1996 to foster the growth and development of electronic financial services and e-commerce for the benefit of financial institutions and their customers.

PARTNERSHIPS

Catuity Licenses Software to Certegy

Catuity, Inc. signed a long-term license agreement with Certegy Inc. Certegy will install Catuity's real-time loyalty software at its international processing centers. Catuity is a loyalty and e-coupon software provider to processors, card issuers and merchants.

eFunds Renews Two Contracts

Through a multi-year ATM branding contract, eFunds Corp. extended its longstanding partnership with CO-OP Network, the largest credit union EFT network in the United States. eFunds will continue to enable the CO-OP Network to brand additional eFunds' ATMs and expand customer access points through eFunds' ATM program. eFunds also announced that it renewed its agreement with a decade-long partner, Encore Electronic Services Cooperative, a Credit Union Services Organization. eFunds will provide ATM driving, network access, debit card processing and other products to 65 Encore credit union members throughout the United States.

Ingenico and POS Portal Partner

POS Portal will provide sales and deployment services for Ingenico's Elite 712 "hand-over" debit ready terminal, the Elite 710 terminal and the Ingenico 2600 check imager/reader, which will enabe POS Portal to market Ingenico's point-of-sale products at a competitive price through its sales automation and order entry management solutions.

Paymentech To Process for Taco Bueno

Paymentech, LP will process credit and debit card transactions for 124 Taco Bueno locations throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Paymentech won the multi-year agreement after a 12-store pilot implemented about one year ago.

TPI Software's Payment Server Selected by State of Washington

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries will use TPI Software LLC's Payment Server solution that supports credit and online debit with Vital Processing Services. TPI Software LLC's Payment Server product line, along with Vital Processing Services, is supporting new payment types such as online (PIN-based) debit and EBT cards using Vital's SSL2 transport protocol. The TPI Payment Server enables merchants to securely process payments in retail, e-commerce, MOTO and wireless industries.

ACQUISITIONS

Ambiron Acquires Tekom

Ambiron, LLC, an independent information security and compliance firm that provides solutions to businesses ranging in size from small to Fortune 500, acquired Chicago-based Tekom, Inc., which builds and maintains secure and reliable screen-based order-entry systems access to both electronically traded and open outcry markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Certegy Buying Two Companies

Certegy Inc. is acquiring Game Financial Corp., a subsidiary of Travelers Express Co., which is owned by Viad Corp. and a provider of debit and credit card cash advances, ATM access and check cashing services in approximately 60 U.S. gaming establishments Certegy is buying the company for approximately $43 million in cash.

Certegy also announced it acquired Crittson Financial Services LLC for approximately $22.5 million in cash. Crittson provides full-service card and merchant processing services to more than 275 financial institutions, 450,000 cardholders and 8,500 merchants throughout the United States.

TowerGroup Sold to MasterCard

MasterCard Advisors, a global professional services organization and a subsidiary of MasterCard International, acquired TowerGroup from Reuters. TowerGroup is a leading research and advisory firm focused exclusively on the global financial services industry. It will continue to operate as a separate business; its headquarters will remain in Needham, MA.

Moneris Buys RBC Centura's Merchant Portfolio

Moneris Solutions, Inc. purchased the merchant-acquiring portfolio of RBC Centura Bank, the North Carolina-based subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.

Moneris and RBC Centura also entered into a referral agreement, whereby Moneris will sign up new merchant accounts from RBC Centura's 242 branches located throughout N.C., S.C., Va., Ga. and Fla.

InterCept Selling IPS

InterCept, Inc. announced plans to sell its merchant services division, InterCept Payment Solutions (IPS) to a management group from IPS (led by its CEO John M. Perry) and a third-party provider of merchant payment services. The proposed purchase price is $37.4 million.

APPOINTMENTS

Advanced Payment Services Adds Two to Management Team

Advanced Payment Services (APS) recently hired Drew Young, formerly of CPS, to be the Director of Technical Support for the ISO Line of Business. Young has 15 years of experience in the industry, including technical support, account implementation, software development and integration. The company also hired Rodney Pesantes, previously with Paymentech, then CPS, to be the Director of Technical Support for its merchant base. Pesantes has seven years of industry experience, including customer service, technical support and account maintenance.

APS said it recognizes these two valuable additions to its management team will complement its existing level of superior service for which APS is known.

Jim Bidwell Elected to E*TRADE Board

E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. elected Jim Bidwell as Chief Risk Officer, a newly created position. Bidwell joined E*TRADE in March 2000 as Vice President, Finance. He previously served as Vice President, Corporate Strategy. Prior to joining E*TRADE, Bidwell was Vice President, Finance-Product Development for IOMEGA Corp.

MasterCard's Cone to Head TowerGroup

Karen Cone, formerly the MasterCard Advisors Global Practice Leader for Research, was appointed President and CEO of TowerGroup upon MasterCard Advisors' acquisition of the company. Cone joined MasterCard Advisors in May 2003. Prior to that, she served 10 years at Gartner Inc., where she was a member of the senior leadership team, held several senior level research positions and was the General Manager of Gartner.com. Prior to Gartner, Cone worked 19 years at IBM.

PULSE Elects New Chairman

Jerry Host was elected to serve as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of PULSE EFT Association. Host is a Director of Jackson, Miss.-based Trustmark National Bank, which is part of Trustmark Corp., a $7.9 billion financial services company. He is also President of Trustmark's General Banking. As the new Chairman of PULSE, Host succeeds Fred Spratlin of First Tennessee Bank, who is retiring.

Moneris Hires Merena

J. Brian Merena joined Moneris Solutions as Senior Vice President, Financial Institutions. Merena will be responsible for developing and maintaining the company's financial institution partner program. He has an extensive background in the financial services industry. Before coming to Moneris, he served as Senior Vice President of Sales at Diversified Acquiring Solutions. He also founded JB Enterprises, a business service solutions company. Merena served as Vice President of Sales for Merchant Card Management Systems, and Senior Director of Sales and Strategic Partnering with Nova Information Systems.

ID Theft Assistance Corp. Appointments

Stan Ommen was elected Chairman of the Board of the Identity Theft Assistance Corporation, a non-profit industry consortium managing the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC). Following are additional appointments to this organization:

• President: Steve Bartlett, President and CEO of The Financial Services Roundtable
• Vice President and Treasurer: Catherine Allen, CEO of BITS
• Secretary: Leigh Williams, Chief Privacy Officer, Fidelity Investments
• Anne Wallace was named Executive Director of the new corporation

Coinstar, Inc. appointed Steve Verleye to the position of General Manager of Electronic Payment Solutions. Most recently, Verleye served as President and CEO of Applied Microsystems. Prior to that, he held senior management positions at Radisys Corp., Sequent Computer Systems and Intel Corp.

InterCept Appoints Two New Board Members

InterCept appointed two new members to its Board of Directors, effective Feb. 20, 2004:

• Dr. James A. Verbrugge, Director of the Center for Strategic Risk Management at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business
• Mark Hawn, founder and CEO of DocuForce, Inc.