ESC Loyalty Enters Real-time Loyalty Market

James Christensen Joins Team to lead Real-time Loyalty Development 

Atlanta, Ga., February 19, 2004 - ESC Loyalty^SM (Enhancement Services Corporation), a wholly owned subsidiary of TSYS^®  and a leading provider of credit- and debit-card reward programs, has added James Christensen, one of the top experts in merchant-loyalty programs, to head up the company's expansion into real-time and point-of-sale (POS) loyalty. 

Christensen's role will be to build ESC Loyalty into the world leader in loyalty transaction processing, utilizing ESC Loyalty's program management expertise and TSYS' payment-processing strengths. He will report directly to Steve R. Wilson, president of ESC Loyalty.

"We believe loyalty programs are poised to move past back-end batch processing and embrace the dynamic marketing benefits and cost effectiveness of real time processing," said Wilson. "James' addition to our team will allow us to become the premier company in real-time loyalty as we maximize TSYS' current leadership role in payment processing and our world-class loyalty expertise."

Christensen was a founder of Ernex Marketing Technologies Inc., a provider of merchant-based loyalty programs and the leader in real-time loyalty marketing. Under his leadership the company has pioneered many of the first real-time POS programs such as loyalty points on the receipt, instant redemption, electronic coupons, sweepstakes and custom messaging. Since 1995, the company managed numerous high profile clients, including Royal Bank of Canada, Eddie Bauer, Choice Hotels, Levi Strauss, Nike and Palm Restaurants.
  
About ESC Loyalty
Located in Roswell, Ga., ESC Loyalty (www.escloyalty.com) is a leading provider of technology-based loyalty marketing solutions, specializing in applications for the credit- and debit-card industry. 

About TSYS
TSYS (NYSE: TSS) (www.tsys.com) brings integrity and innovation to the world of electronic payment services as the integral link between buyers and sellers in this rapidly evolving universe. Synovus (NYSE: SNV) (www.synovus.com) owns an 81-percent interest in TSYS. For more information, contact news@tsys.com.

Contacts
Lars Holmquist
ESC Loyalty
+1.678.297.4370
lholmquist@escloyalty.com