Card Scheme owned by European banks and fully independent from processing.

Brussels, 2nd December 2008. EUFISERV Payments announced today that the EUFISERV ATM Scheme is fully separated from its former processing business, in line with the SEPA requirements of the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

Since it began in 1990, the scheme has been owned and managed by EUFISERV - a combined scheme and processing business. At the end of last year, prior to the announcement of the agreement between EUFISERV and First Data Corp., the EUFISERV Scheme was "spun-off" from EUFISERV into a new company - EUFISERV Payments. The new company's shareholders are major European banks and bank owned organisations.

Currently the EUFISERV ATM Scheme provides access to cash to over 67 million cardholders. EUFISERV branded cards are issued by over 600 participating European banks and are accepted at 68,000 branded EUFISERV ATMs across Europe. It is the only European scheme in operation today.

Since the spin-off from EUFISERV, the new company has carried out a thorough overhaul of the necessary governance arrangements and scheme rules. EUFISERV Payments and the EUFISERV Scheme are now fully SEPA compliant. The scheme is completely independent of processors, including Trionis - the new name for the former EUFISERV processing business.

Wolfgang Adamiok, Chairman of EUFISERV Payments and Head of Card Strategies at the German Savings Banks Association, commented: "We have worked hard to do what is required for SEPA. This work assures continuity of service to our participating banks, as well of course, to cardholders. EUFISERV Payments and its shareholders fully support the SEPA project and are proud to announce their contribution to its success. We trust that other schemes will follow our lead and separate scheme management functions from processing; otherwise we will not have a level playing field.

In further anticipation of SEPA, the Scheme is taking a number of initiatives aimed at expanding the service it offers to its members, as well as members of other schemes. Already scheme members in Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal accept German debit cards under a bilateral agreement with the German scheme. Other members will follow suit later. Developments are under way to make similar agreements with other schemes for mutual acceptance of each other's cards. In addition, EUFISERV Payments is a founding shareholder in the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes, which will extend the Scheme beyond its current footprint.

John Ormerod, General Manager of EUFISERV Payments, added: "As well as cooperating with other schemes and alliances for mutual acceptance, the EUFISERV Scheme - as a SEPA-compliant scheme - is open to banks and other financial institutions to join directly as members. We can offer new members an attractive proposition for their ATM business as well as service to their cardholders."

About EUFISERV Payments

EUFISERV Payments scrl is a Brussels-based cooperative company with limited liability owned by retail banks from twelve European countries and by the European Savings Banks Group. More on www.eufiserv.com.

For further information

John Ormerod, General Manager
Tel: +32 (0)2 663 02 29
john.ormerod@eufiserv.com

Dirk Smet, Media Contact
Tel: +32 (0)2 211 11 90
dirk.smet@savings-banks.com