APS is a leading provider of general purpose prepaid cards and payment solutions in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. In January 2008, Metavante Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:MV), a leading provider of banking and payments technology, announced the acquisition of London-based Nomad Payments Ltd. Nomad now operates as Metavante Technologies Ltd. and continues Nomad's legacy of being a leading provider of prepaid and debit card processing and licensed software.

APS has already begun directing all of its new business to Metavante Technologies Ltd., and is in the process of transitioning its core portfolio during April. When complete, the portfolio migration will represent the largest prepaid card portfolio migration in Europe, with over 200,000 account customers transitioning to Metavante Technologies Ltd.'s platform.

Representing a significant processing opportunity for Metavante Technologies Ltd., APS' prepaid portfolio, led by its cashplus card, has built a loyal following. Since cashplus launched in 2005 and became the U.K.'s first general purpose MasterCard, cardholders have loaded over £200 million onto the cards. Mercator Advisory Group research points towards a healthy European growth pipeline for prepaid transaction processing. According to Mercator, prepaid payment card spending in Europe is estimated to reach $164 billion (USD) by 2010. As for the U.K. specifically, the same research forecasts total prepaid spend will reach $34 billion (USD) by 2010, making the U.K. Europe's largest market and the fourth largest market worldwide.*

"We did due diligence on some of the world's top processors, and Metavante Technologies Ltd. clearly stood out — not only with its proven CORTEX platform and the technology to support prepaid card applications, but with a team of seasoned payments professionals who really understood the specific needs of a prepaid proposition," said Rich Wagner, chief executive, Advanced Payment Solutions.

As part of the Metavante-APS arrangement, Metavante provides APS with a range of services including: card issuing and account management, transaction processing and authorisation prepay features such as Web services, scheme gateways and compliance, as well as reporting and management information. APS will also employ Metavante's fraud and compliance monitoring system and its call centre application.

Wagner continued, "Metavante Technologies Ltd. delivers the compelling attribute of being more than just a processor — it's also a technology provider with core processing capabilities, plus extensive prepaid processing experience in the advanced US market. They have provided us with a reliable solution and flexible fee structures that will enable APS to offer a greater range of 'pay as you go' charging combinations and, therefore, a greater range of future products to our clients. This is a vital factor in the prepaid card business, which has tighter margins and more disparate cardholder behaviour than other debit and credit portfolios."

"To gain the entirety of APS' market-leading prepaid portfolio is a most notable achievement and vote of confidence in the role we can play in our clients' success," said John Yeomans, president, Metavante Technologies Ltd. "To put this transaction processing growth opportunity further into perspective for Metavante, consider that industry research predicts 10 percent of an estimated 3 million un-banked U.K. consumers will use prepaid for daily money management by 2010.** With the strong position APS already enjoys in the European prepaid market, coupled with the powerful value proposition of APS products like cashplus, this arrangement puts Metavante in an enviable growth position. The stronger we can make our clients' products, the better we can serve their cardholders, and we look forward to helping APS bring new value-added functionality to their customers."

Processing over 80 million ATM, credit, debit and prepaid cards for clients worldwide, Metavante Payment Solutions offers prepaid card personalization and account processing for both merchant-issued (closed-loop) gift cards and network-branded (open-loop) prepaid cards, such as payroll, government-benefit disbursement, shopping mall, incentive, open-loop gift, rebate and loyalty/reward cards. Metavante also supports prepaid-reload transaction processing.

*, ** Mercator Advisory Group, "The Evolving Landscape of Prepaid Cards in Latin America and Europe," March 2008, Elisa Athonvarangkul.