ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cash Systems To Trade on AMEX

Cash Systems, Inc., provider of cash access solutions for the gaming industry, is listing its common stock on the American Stock Exchange. Cash Systems said it expects to begin trading on this exchange in January 2004 with the stock symbol CKN. In other news, Cash Systems will provide cash access services at five Seminole Tribe of Florida casinos in the State of Florida, including ATM, check cashing and cash advance services.

Datamark Class A Certified on Talento

Datamark Technologies, Inc., a provider of integrated stored value, promotion and loyalty solutions, announced the Class A certification of its full set of capabilities on Thales e-Transactions, Inc.'s Talento line of products.

New and Improved Payment Web Sites

Both Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO) and USA ePay announced changes to their Web sites. ECHO (www.echo-inc.com) provides electronic payment and transaction processing services; USA ePay (www.usaepay.com) is an ECI-certified gateway on the First Data Nashville and the Vital Platforms.

GO Software Installs 100,000 Products

Return On Investment Corp. subsidiary, GO Software Inc., announced that it has had its 100,000th product installation. The company said there has been a 50% increase in GO Software installations over the past two years. The company contributes its success to products PCCharge, a Windows-based payment processing solution, and its Rapid Transaction Authority (RiTA) Server, a scalable transaction switch supporting high volume, multi-threaded transaction processing.

New White Paper on 3DES Compliance

e-ClassicSystems, Inc. released a white paper titled, "Managing the 3DES Project: A Business Perspective." The white paper analyzes a 3DES compliance project, and how it can be an opportunity rather than a mandate by identifying ways to maximize investment of time and money. Thomas F. Meurer, President of e-ClassicSystems, wrote the paper, which is the third in a continuing series. e-ClassicSystems provides software solutions to organizations that deploy or manage ATMs. To obtain a copy of the white paper, visit www.atmmanager.com, e-mail your request to tnargassans@atmmanager.com or call 781-551-9123.

Ingenico Ships 300,000 e^N-Touch 1000 Terminals

Ingenico announced that it has shipped its 300,000th e^N-Touch 1000 touch screen and signature capture terminal to major retailers in the United States. Retailers such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Toys "R" Us, 7-Eleven, Safeway, Eckerd Drug, Sam's Club, Orchard Supply, Kmart, Sports Authority, Office Depot, Cingular Wireless, The Wiz, Ross Stores, CSK Auto, AAFES and RadioShack use the terminal.

Shift4 Certified on Fifth Third

Shift4 Corp. said it completed debit testing and certification on Fifth Third Bank's Fifth Third Processing Solutions (FTPS) platform for Shift4's $$$ ON THE NET product, a Web-based e-payment gateway with electronic payment authorization, settlement, reporting and fraud control.

In addition to Fifth Third, Shift4 has certified debit processing interfaces with First Data Merchant Services (FDC), Global Payment Services (formerly NDC) and Vital Processing Services.

Smart Card Alliance Opens Web Store

The Smart Card Alliance has many published reports available on its Web site (www.smartcardalliance.org). The fees range from no charge up to $149 per report and are available only in electronic (PDF) format. The Alliance is also offering copies of past conference proceedings on CD-ROM at $295.

All items will be free to member organizations of the Alliance. Two Smart Card Alliance workgroups- Secure Personal ID Task Force and Terminal and eTransaction Infrastructure Task Force are currently working on their next set of deliverables.

PARTNERSHIPS

Pay Cash for Continental Airlines Tickets

Continental Airlines and First Data Corp. subsidiary Western Union Financial Services, Inc. have partnered to provide people traveling in the domestic United States and Canada with a way to pay for their tickets in cash when they book their flights online.

This is how it works: When travelers book a flight on Continental they can then choose to send cash payment for their reservation, instead of using a credit card. After the flight is booked, they are given a confirmation number to take to a Western Union agent location. Tickets must be paid for in full, within 24 hours, to guarantee a reservation.

eFunds Branded ATMs Surpass 7,500

North Valley Bank Corp. joined eFunds Corp.'s ATM branding program, which has increased the number of eFunds' branded ATMs to more than 7,500. eFunds' program enables financial institutions to increase their brand presence and the availability of surcharge-free ATM access to their customers. eFunds manages more than 17,500 ATMs in the United States and Canada.

10,000 Omni 3750s at Family Dollar

Family Dollar Stores, Inc. has successfully installed more than 10,000 VeriFone, Inc. Omni 3750 payment terminals in 5,000 retail locations throughout the United States. VeriFone and Direct Source partnered to provide Family Dollar a point-of-sale solution. The terminal is certified by Concord EFS, Inc., meets the latest 3DES security standards and is smart card ready. Atlanta-based PRE Solutions, Inc., is providing prepaid telecom services directly from the VeriFone Omni 3750 payment terminals.

ICE Partners to Offer Credit Card Services

International Card Establishment, Inc. (I.C.E.) said it has entered into a marketing agreement with a Toronto, Canada-based company to provide Visa and MasterCard credit card services to Canadian merchants. ICE said it would not disclose the name of the Canadian company it has partnered with for competitive reasons. ICE and its Canadian partner will share equally in the net revenues generated by their joint marketing and sales efforts.

ACQUISITIONS

Return On Investment Corp. subsidiary GO Software Inc., acquired all of the assets of Atomic Software Inc., including Atomic's dial-up product, Authorizer, and its payment gateway solution, iAuthorizer. Prior to the acquisition, Atomic had shut down iAuthorizer gateway.

As part of GO Software's expansion plans and the development of a more complete product line in order to become a one-stop shop for payment processing, the company will redevelop iAuthorizer and release an enhanced gateway product in 2004. GO Software said it will continue selling, supporting and maintaining the dial-up Authorizer product for customers with existing integrations.

ICE Acquires GlobalTech Leasing

International Card Establishment, Inc. (formerly iNetEvents, Inc.) completed its acquisition of 100% of GlobalTech Leasing, Inc. GlobalTech Leasing provides microticket leasing services to ISOs, their agents and processors.

Under the terms of the merger, GlobalTech Leasing shareholders received five million shares of restricted I.C.E. common stock in exchange for their GlobalTech Leasing stock. GlobalTech Leasing will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and a separate entity of International Card Establishment (ICE).

Euronet Subsidiary Acquires Precept

Looking to establish itself in the U.S. prepaid market, Euronet Worldwide, Inc.'s subsidiary PaySpot, Inc., acquired 100% of the shares of Prepaid Concepts, Inc. (Precept), a California corporation that sells prepaid services via point-of-sale (POS) terminals in the United States.

Precept distributes prepaid products and services (such as wireless access cards for major U.S. wireless carriers: ALLTEL, AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Tracfone and Verizon) through a network of approximately 4,500 retail locations. Shares of Precept were purchased with a combination of cash, debt and Euronet stock.

APPOINTMENTS

Pamela Esche Joins Solveras

ISO Solveras Payment Systems hired Pamela L. Esche to serve as Director of Financial Analysis for the company's growing merchant account portfolio. Esche most recently worked at JSK Consulting Services, serving as a consultant to Solveras for the past year. Before JSK, she was Director of Business Strategy for Universal Companies in Milwaukee, Wis. until Fifth Third Bank acquired it.

CardinalCommerce Appoints Two to Board

CardinalCommerce Corp. appointed Gary Heatherington and Andreas Drimiotis to its Board of Advisors. Heatherington, who will serve as Chairman of the company's Board of Advisors, has more than 27 years of management and board experience. He was CEO of Cyota, a provider of electronic payments technology solutions from 2000-2001.

From 1999-2000 he served as President and CEO of Bank One Int'l. Heatherington worked at MasterCard from 1992-99, and served as EVP Global Markets; President Canada Region; and President and CEO Maestro Canada. Before MasterCard, he was a Group VP at National Trust Company. He worked at the Bank of Montreal and National Westminster Bank. And he has held or currently holds Directorship positions at Cyota, First Data Corp., Visa Canada, Bank One Canada, MasterCard Canada, Maestro and Paradata Systems Inc.

Andreas Drimiotis is the current Chairman of Athens, Greece-based Delta Singular, the largest card processor in the Southeastern Europe. Drimiotis has 35 years of experience in IT and card processing services. Drimiotis has been the CEO and one of the founders of Delta Informatics since 1984 when the company was formed with Alpha Bank as the main shareholder. Prior to Delta Informatics, Drimiotis served as CEO of Unisystems, the Greek distributor of Unisys Inc.

First American Payment Systems Promotes CFO

First American Payment Systems, L.P. named James B. Walburg Senior Vice President and CFO, succeeding Debra Bradford, who will now serve the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Bradford joined First American as Senior Vice President and CFO in 2001. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President and CFO of ACE Cash Express, Inc. She also had a 15-year career with IPS Card Solutions (formerly NTS, Inc.), a division of First Data Corporation, serving in various positions and leaving in 1999 as Chief Operating Officer.

James Walburg most recently was Senior Vice President in charge of finance and administration at IMCO Recycling. However, he is not new to the transaction processing industry. He spent 11 years with NTS, Inc. working in various financial roles including Vice President of Finance and Operations.

BOTTOM LINES

• The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in November, slipped in December 2003. The December Index is 91.3, down from 92.5 the previous month.

• A new 180,000-square-foot Sears Grand store opening in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. will include a convenience store that will carry items such as milk, beverages, snacks and frozen pizzas, the NACS Online reported. Sears will test five additional store outlets with convenience stores inside.

• The National Retail Federation reported that 2003 holiday sales in the GAFS category were $216.32 billion, an increase of 5.2% over last year. The GASF category includes general merchandise stores, clothing and clothing accessories stores, furniture and home furnishings stores, electronics and appliances stores and sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores.