NEWS

GDP Grows in Second Quarter

The U.S. economy increased at an annual rate of 2.4% in the second quarter of 2003, according to advance estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The report shows a moderate increase from the previous quarter, when GDP grew 1.4%. Major contributors to the Q2 increase include personal consumption expenditures (PCE), federal defense spending, non-residential fixed investment and residential fixed investment.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thales Moves Terminal Center

Thales e-Transactions announced a relocation of its terminal deployment center to a larger facility:

Thales Service Center
509 Medtech Parkway
Johnson City, TN 37604
Repair Status Hotline: 423-952-7414
Thales Customer Help Desk: 888-710-0100
Sales: 888-726-3900

ISOs Manage with Global @dvantage

Global Payments Inc. now offers its ISO partners Global @dvantage, a secure place on the Internet (open 24 hours a day) where ISOs can access information about their accounts such as sales volume, transaction count, average ticket and residuals. The site also provides risk-management and portfolio-management tools, contact directories and documentation on Global's product and service offerings.

MIST Awarded Smart Card Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded MIST Inc., parent company of NBS Card Technology Corp., U.S. patent #6,588,673 for its "inline EMV smart card personalization process" technology - also known as its "one-step smart process." NBS' software developers created a new method for EMV smart card issuance that eliminates the duplication of the hardware security module.

NACHA Tests Electronic Billing Model

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association is testing an EBIDS (Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service) program whereby companies will deliver billing information electronically using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. NACHA said that, if successful, the pilot could serve as a universal model for financial institutions using the ACH network to distribute consumer bills.

New Report on Fraudulent Merchants

Houston-based Galt Systems, Inc. announced the availability of its Terminated Store Report, an industry-wide database of merchants that have been terminated for fraud and A/R write-offs. If you are considering a merchant for a check truncation product, you can potentially save thousands by preventing those with a negative history from signing up, Galt Systems said. The company supplies risk management, collections, call-center operations and IT solutions to check acceptance providers.

PARTNERSHIPS

NOVA to Process for Provident Merchants

As part of a long-term agreement, NOVA Information Systems will process credit and debit cards, electronic check services and other value-added services for Cincinnati-based The Provident Bank's merchant customers. The Provident Bank is a subsidiary of Provident Financial Group, Inc. NOVA values this agreement at $900 million in Visa and MasterCard sales annually. Provident and NOVA also will jointly market merchant processing services to new customers.

Global eTelecom Gets Thrifty

Global eTelecom, Inc., along with Integrity Card Services, will provide The Thrifty Nickel with an integrated electronic check conversion solution, allowing the free classified newspaper (both printed and online) to accept and process paper checks electronically.

NPC Signs Three

National Processing Co. will provide authorization and settlement services for credit and debit card transactions for Sheetz, Inc., a privately owned, family-operated convenience store business with more than 290 locations in five states. NPC also will process online debit transactions for ShopKo Stores, Inc. NPC provides authorization and settlement services for ShopKo's MasterCard and VISA transactions.

In addition, ISO CoCard Marketing Group, LLC renewed a multiyear processing agreement with NPC, which will continue to provide credit and debit card authorization and settlement to CoCard's merchant customers.

USA Petroleum Picks Paymentech

Paymentech, L.P. will process credit and debit card transactions using DSL connections for USA Petroleum's 160 stores. USA Petroleum is a national convenience store and gas station chain. Paymentech also will provide USA Petroleum with an interface to Fleet One, USA Petroleum's fleet processing partner. Both the DSL and Fleet One interface will originate from VeriFone, Inc.'s Ruby SuperSystem.

Skipjack and CardinalCommerce Partner

Skipjack Financial Services, Inc. and CardinalCommerce Corp. have formed a partnership whereby Skipjack will offer CardinalCommerce's payment authentication software, Cardinal Centinel, to its online merchant customers. Cardinal Centinel was designed for acquiring banks and merchant service providers and their merchants. The company says the software reduces the level of online fraudulent transactions and guarantees payment to online merchants while protecting cardholder accounts.

Tranax Offers Payroll Check Cashing

CashWorks, Inc. is providing Tranax Technologies, Inc. with functionality to support government and payroll check cashing on all Tranax ATMs. CashWorks' payroll check-cashing solution allows merchants to create a new source of fee-based income while also increasing customer loyalty and sales in the store. CashWorks began offering this capability in July 2003 on select Tranax ATM models and said it has plans to offer it on all of its models.

NSF Fights Bad Checks for National Car Rental

National Car Rental System, Inc. will begin using NSF Check Retrieval's free check recovery service to collect on bounced and bad checks written by customers. NSF Check Retrieval handles check collections through a process called electronic re-presentment, which allows NSF to debit each bad check and a service charge directly from the bad check writer's bank account.

CheckAGAIN Signs Major Shoe Store

CheckAGAIN will provide 300 Rack Room Shoes locations with check management services such as point-of-sale check authorization, electronic check representment, centralized returns and Web-enabled reporting. Rack Room Shoes is a privately held shoe retailer.

Newtek Offers e-Commerce Software to Merchants

Newtek Business Services, Inc. subsidiary Newtek Merchant Services has partnered with Mercantec, Inc. to provide its merchant customers with Web site building software. The application Newtek will offer through the partnership is called Mercantec

PowerCommerce, and it helps merchants build a Web site and accept and process credit card payments. A bundled offering includes Web site hosting, an optional integrated gateway and online support for first-time e-commerce merchants. Mercantec said its software package is especially designed for resale by ISOs.

ACQUISITIONS

Global Payments To Buy DolEx

Global Payments Inc. announced plans to acquire Latin America Money Services, LLC and subsidiary DolEx Dollar Express, Inc., based in Arlington, Texas. DolEx is an electronic money transfer firm that services mostly Hispanic customers who send money to family and friends in Mexico and other Latin American countries. DolEx operates through approximately 550 retail branches.

Global Payments expects to pay approximately $200 million for the company and expects the transaction to close before the end of 2003. In 2002, DolEx processed 4.6 million electronic money transfer transactions and reported nearly $70 million in revenue.

iPayment Acquires ISO

In its first acquisition as a public company, iPayment, Inc. acquired ISO Card Payment Solutions, Inc. (CPS). CPS' portfolio contains more than 4,000 small merchants and is valued at approximately $400 million. iPayment paid about $16 million for the company ($12 million in cash, nearly $3 million in stock and assumed $1 million of debt).

Newtek Buys AMS

Newtek Business Services, Inc. acquired Automated Merchant Services, Inc. (AMS), a provider of electronic merchant payment services to businesses and government agencies in the U.S. Newtek said it gained 2,100 customers and 10 sales representatives in Florida with the transaction. The company plans to grow AMS beyond the Florida market and eventually will change its name to "Newtek Merchant Solutions."

Providian Sells $850 Million Portfolio

A joint venture formed by CompuCredit Corp. and Merrill Lynch purchased a portfolio of approximately 435,000 credit card accounts with $859 million in outstanding balances from Providian Financial Corp., a subsidiary of Providian Bank. Providian expects to transfer servicing of the portfolio by mid-August 2003.

Western Union Enters Top-Up Market

First Data Corp. subsidiary Western Union Financial Services, Inc. has purchased a majority stake in Eposs Limited, a Cambridge, U.K.-based provider of electronic products and payment solutions for the prepaid cellular, or "mobile top-up," entertainment and services market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Eposs' sells its products in-store by integrating with retailers' point-of-sale systems and through multimedia vending machines.

APPOINTMENTS

Blackstone Names Acton President

Blackstone, provider of prepaid products and services, promoted Michael D. Acton to President of the company. Acton previously served as Blackstone's General Manager. He has been with Blackstone for four years.

Andrews Promoted at Catuity

Catuity, Inc. promoted Douglas Andrews to the position of Account Director. Andrews previously served as Senior Account Manager at the company. He has more than 25 years' experience with manufacturing and financial services organizations. Before joining Catuity in July 2001, he served as Director of Internet and Direct Retailing for Michigan National Bank. He also worked at Detroit Bank and Trust, Hughes Aircraft and Allied Signal.

Bennett Appointed President of NET1

Verus Financial Management promoted Bob Bennett to President of its subsidiary, Network 1 Financial (NET1). Bennett joined NET1 in December 2001 as Executive Vice President. He previously served as President of Virtual-Plastic Corp., an Internet Shopping Card start-up and President of MIC, Inc.

Bennett also was the Chairman and CEO of MicroFridge, Inc. Prior to MicroFridge, Inc., Bennett directed sales efforts for high-growth computer companies, managed software applications and worked as a consulting engineer.

FDC Appoints Global Compliance Exec

First Data Corp. appointed Christine E. Carnavos to serve as Senior Vice President of Global Compliance for FDC's Payment Services businesses, including Western Union. First Data created Carnavos' position to support the company's efforts in maintaining regulatory compliance with global regulatory requirements, anti-money laundering initiatives, the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot Act. Carnavos has more than 25 years of compliance, legal and government experience.

She previously served as Executive Associate Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she was head of the Office of Compliance and Regulatory Enforcement. She also served as Chief Compliance Officer and Manager, Corporate Compliance at PNC Financial Services.

She was a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Compliance Schools of the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the ABA's Compliance Executive Committee.

Banking Veteran Joins Carreker Board

Carreker Corp. announced Keith W. Hughes joined the company's Board of Directors. Hughes is a 30-year veteran of the banking industry and former Vice Chairman and Director of Citigroup. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Associates First Capital Corp., which is now part of Citigroup. Hughes worked at Crocker National Bank, Northwestern Bank and Continental Bank. He currently serves as a consultant to financial institutions.

Magner to Head Citigroup Consumer Group

Citigroup promoted Marjorie Magner to Chairman and Chief Executive of its global consumer group, which handles Citigroup's retail banking, consumer finance and credit card operations.

Magner joined Commercial Credit, a predecessor company to Citigroup, in 1987. She also worked at Chemical Bank. Magner is the second woman in Citigroup's top executive ranks, the Associated Press reported.

Integrated Leasing Hires CFO

Integrated Leasing Corp. hired Paul Peterik to serve as Chief Financial Officer. Peterik, a CPA, has more than thirty years of senior-level financial and operating management experience in various industries in both the public and private sector. His prior financial service industry experience includes the $4 billion Wickes Companies, Inc., where he oversaw all treasury activities, bank financing and leases and the captive and third-party consumer credit card operations.

Vital Names New President

Beverly Wells has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Processing Services. Wells succeeds Jonathan Palmer, who left Vital to tend to family responsibilities in Florida. Wells most recently served as Executive Vice President for Vital's Retail Division. She previously worked at Wachovia Corp. for 26 years.

She led Wachovia's $7.8 billion dollar credit card operation and worked in multiple leadership positions, including management of Wachovia's Treasury Services Group and management of consumer lending and all retail branch activities.

BOTTOM LINES

• U.S. consumer debt fell 0.2% in June 2003 as consumers charged less on their credit cards for the first time in seven months, according to the Federal Reserve.
• Major U.S. retailers posted better than expected same-store sales in July 2003. Retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Federated Department Stores, Gap, AnnTaylor and Abercrombie & Fitch all raised their quarterly earnings forecasts.
• McDonald's reported an 11% increase in July same-store sales.
• Wal-Mart wants to open 40 Supercenters throughout California over the next four years, beginning with La Quinta and followed by Bakersfield, Hanford, Chico and Redding.
• Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., an operator of convenience stores, plans to purchase 43 stores of Clark Retail Enterprises, Inc., all with gasoline-dispensing operations. Thirty-three of the stores are located in Illinois, and the rest are in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio.
• 7-Eleven Inc. has partnered with GTECH Corp. to offer customers the ability to purchase lottery tickets through its Vcom kiosks. The ATM-style kiosks are located in 1,000 7-Eleven stores in 14 states. 7-Eleven sells more than 700 million lottery tickets each year.