Vital Enhances Its End-to-End POS Check Service Offering with Support of Check Imaging

Check Imaging Gives Acquirers and Merchants  a Collection and Risk Management Tool for Returned Checks

Tempe, Ariz., August 13, 2002 - Vital Processing Services^®  (Vital^®), a recognized leader in technology-based commerce enabling services, announces the addition of Check Imaging to its POS Check Service offering.  Vital's POS Check Service with Imaging now gives merchants and acquirers greater protection against losses from returned check items.    

"Vital's POS Check Service with Imaging leads the market," said Denise Lewis, Vital's executive vice president of Products and Marketing.  "It provides the most comprehensive and flexible electronic check conversion offer in the market, with end-to-end processing services for merchants and fully integrated funding, billing and statementing for acquirers."
 
Five of Vital's largest acquiring clients have fully implemented Vital's POS Check Service and additional clients are in the pre-implementation phase.  "Acquirers recognize the tremendous revenue opportunity this product provides and the value it brings to them and their merchants in operational efficiencies and risk management," said Lewis.

 "Studies have shown that electronic check conversion has significantly reduced the costs of handling and processing paper checks," said Nick Baxter, president of First National Merchant Solutions, a Vital client that has implemented Vital's POS Check Service.  "First National Merchant Solutions has always been in the forefront of delivering technology that reduces merchant risk while gaining efficiencies and lowering costs.  This provides our customers with a platform that is flexible to meet each merchants unique needs."

Vital's POS Check Service is unique in that it accesses consumer Demand Deposit Accounts (DDAs) in addition to third-party risk management databases provided by ECHO and BankServ Checks for the authorization of check transactions at the point of sale.  It also allows merchants to select at a transaction level whether to simply convert the check to an electronic item, or whether to add verification or guarantee services.

Vital's POS Check Service with Imaging captures the entire image of the check as well as consumer identification information such as name, address and telephone number.  In the event of check re-presentment or MICR misread, Vital's Imaging Solution enables merchants, acquirers or third-party check processors to retrieve the original check image quickly and easily.

Erik Nesheim, vice president of Product Management at Vital said, "Check Imaging is an essential risk management and collection tool for acquirers and their merchants."  He added that several States - including California - will no longer prosecute individuals for passing a check with non-sufficient funds (NSF) without either the original check or a reasonable facsimile or an image of the check.

Vital recently enhanced its Retail and Restaurant Hypercom T7 Series 512K POS terminal application to support Check Imaging using the RDM 5003i and 5004i Imaging devices.  This application is Class A certified on Vital's authorization and settlement platforms and is supported 24 x 7 on Vital's Merchant Help Desk.

About First National Merchant Solutions
First National Merchant Solutions is a premier global payment processor serving both the traditional and Internet direct marketing industry, as well as the traditional face-to-face card acceptance market. Processing transactions in 20 foreign currencies, First National Merchant Solutions offers international payment processing solutions for businesses worldwide.  First National Bank, founded in 1857, is the 32nd oldest nationally chartered bank in existence. For more information, visit First National Merchant Solution's Web site at www.foomp.com.

About Vital Processing Services
A leader in technology-based commerce enabling services, Vital Processing Services^® (Vital^®) is the commerce connection between acquirers and merchants, processing one out of every four authorized payment transactions in North America.  From authorizing and capturing electronic payments at the merchant point of sale, to clearing and settling transactions, Vital provides highly reliable, integrated end-to-end processing services to more than 300 acquirers and over one million merchants.  Vital processes all payment types for merchants of all sizes from a wide array of industries and provides merchants and acquirers with the  information and tools to efficiently manage their merchant payment businesses.  Vital is a merchant processing joint venture of Visa U.S.A. and TSYS® ("NYSE: TSS").  Additional information regarding Vital can be found at www.vitalps.com.

Contacts:
Virginia Lewis     
Vice President of Corporate Relations   
Vital Processing Services   
(480) 333 - 7671  
virginia.lewis@vitalps.com  

Jim Bush 
Publication Manager 
First National Merchant Solutions
(402) 633 - 1917
jbush@fnni.com