Under the joint venture, the Group also announces the launch of the POLi payment service for the UK market, distributed through NETELLER's payment processing arm, NETBANX.

In August 2007, the NETELLER Group announced it had taken a 25% strategic stake in Australian POLi operator, Centricom Pty Ltd. The European joint venture is a 50/50 joint venture between both parties.

The POLi service is a safe and convenient method to make online payments. Through the POLi service, consumers can make payments to merchants anywhere in the world directly from their existing Internet banking service without disclosing their bank or credit card details. According to reporting merchants in Australia who have implemented POLi, the service now accounts for an average of 23% of their total online payment transactions. The new UK service supports transfers from all major UK high street banks.

According to UK payment industry trade body APACS, in 2006, the most recent year surveyed, the average card transaction cost to merchants was GBP1.69, 15% of adults in the UK did not have access to cards for payment, and card-not-present (online) fraud increased by 16% to GBP212 million.

The POLi service helps solve these key problems: it allows people without cards to pay online and pay from their trusted internet banking service, and it significantly reduces fraud and repudiation risk for merchants, compared with other on-line payment types such as credit and debit cards. And it enjoys high consumer confidence as no user information is captured or stored by the service.

Ron Martin, President & Chief Executive Officer of NETELLER, said "We continue to be very pleased with our ongoing relationship with Centricom. We believe the POLi service offers significant benefits to merchants who sell products and services online. This increased investment is part of our commitment to delivering the best total online payments solution suite for merchants."

Simon Warner, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of Centricom and Centricom Europe, said "The NETELLER Group relationship gives POLi a strong foothold in the European market. Whilst online purchases are becoming more convenient, many consumers are still wary about using their cards over the Internet because of fraud and identity theft. The POLi service overcomes these barriers."

POLi in UK is operated by Centricom Europe Limited, and is distributed to merchants through the NETELLER Group's payment arm, NETBANX.