Retail Decisions, Inc. and TSYS Announce Strategic Commercial Card Fraud Initiative

Companies Collaborate to Develop Commercial Card-Specific Neural Network Fraud Detection Models

Providence, RI - Oct. 10, 2001 - ReD PRISM, a division of the Retail Decisions plc (ReD) group of companies (LSE: RTD), and TSYS^® (NYSE: TSS), the largest processor of Visa- and MasterCard-branded commercial cards in the United States with an 89-percent market share, today announced plans to collaborate, in conjunction with several leading commercial card issuers, to build a commercial-card specific fraud detection model. The self-learning, neural network model is the first of its kind for the commercial card market and will be integrated as a part of the TSYS CardGuard^SM fraud detection system.

Developed using commercial card transaction data from a group of card issuers, including Wells Fargo Bank and USBank, the model will provide a predictive fraud score by comparing transactions to the model's learned memory of fraudulent patterns. High-scoring transactions can be queued for review and delivered to banks through TSYS CardGuard.

"Purchasing, GSA, fleet and T&E cards demonstrate unique fraud characteristics that a targeted neural network model trained on commercial card data can effectively detect," said R.B. (Skeet) Rolling, director of fraud control services at TSYS. "Our partnership with Retail Decisions allows us to deliver highly targeted fraud control solutions to our card-issuing clients around the world, and that helps us fulfill our three-year strategic plan VisionWorks."

"We are pleased to be able to expand our partnership with TSYS to deliver this exclusive fraud detection solution," said Carl C. Clump, CEO, Retail Decisions, plc. "As part of the commercial card fraud detection initiative, ReD PRISM has developed a model performance evaluation tool that will enable card issuers to road test the model for each commercial card portfolio within the bank prior to deployment."

The development of the commercial card-specific fraud detection model follows the successful rollout of ReD PRISM neural network fraud detection models at TSYS, including models for U.S., Canadian and Mexican consumer card issuers.

TSYS offers a full suite of products for small business, corporate, fleet and purchasing cards.
Additionally, TSYS is the only processor of the Federal Government's GSA Smart Pay program.
The new commercial card-specific fraud detection model will be available to TSYS clients in first quarter 2002.

About Retail Decisions
Retail Decisions (ReD) is a card-based transactions services business that provides fraud prevention to the finance, telecommunications, retail and e-commerce sectors. Using risk management and analysis tools, ReD is able to predict and prevent payment card fraud; this infrastructure also provides a platform for a full range of card-based services. Retail Decisions collates and distributes the UK's most comprehensive "Hot Card File" of lost and stolen cards, which is continually updated and is available to retailers 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The company currently protects nearly 10,000 retail sites in the UK, principally in high payment volume sectors. In 2000, Retail Decisions checked approximately 1.25 billion UK card purchases and prevented an estimated £79m card fraud.

ReD PRISM, a division of Retail Decisions, Inc. is a leading provider of intelligent decision-support solutions for the financial services and e-commerce industries. ReD PRISM's client/server products incorporate innovative pattern-recognition technologies ideally suited for data-intensive, real-time decision applications. The company's products provide predictive fraud detection and case management for e-commerce fraud, credit, debit and retail (private-label) card fraud, as well as merchant fraud and money laundering.

About TSYS
TSYS brings integrity and innovation to the world of electronic payments. TSYS serves as the integral link between buyers and sellers in the rapidly evolving universe of electronic payments. With more than 200 million accounts on file, TSYS makes it possible for millions of consumers to use their credit, debit, stored value, commercial, chip and retail cards anytime, anywhere through any medium or portal. TSYS offers a full range of acquiring and issuing services from accepting electronic payments for goods and services, to credit applications, bankruptcy and collections. Based in Columbus, Ga., TSYS (www.tsys.com) processes for 23 countries, in 14 currencies, in four languages and maintains operations in Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the United Kingdom. TSYS is an 80.8 percent-owned subsidiary of Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) (http://www.synovus.com ), No. 8 on FORTUNE magazine's list of "The 100 Best Companies To Work For" in 2001. For more information, contact news@tsys.com.

Contact:
Carl Clump
Chief Executive Officer, Retail Decisions plc
+44 1483 728 700
cclump@tsys.com

Renee Noble Nolan
TSYS Lead Corporate Communications Specialist
706.649.5363
rnolan@tsys.com