TSYS Card Tech Introduces Chip and PIN Secure Payments to Cyprus

London and Nicosia, Cyprus, 2 July 2007 — TSYS Card Tech, a wholly owned affiliate of global payments provider TSYS®, today announced the introduction of EMV cards to Cyprus through partnerships with three Cyprus-based banks.

As part of the Cyprus PIN & PAY initiative that came into effect in March 2007, TSYS Card Tech has been successfully certified for Visa Smart Debit/Credit (VSDC) and MasterCard M/Chip. The first three banks to roll out EMV cards using TSYS Card Tech’s PRIME card management system are Marfin Popular Bank (formerly Laiki Bank, Cyprus), Hellenic Bank and Universal Bank.

The banks will roll out the new cards during the next two years, as they replace existing magnetic stripe cards with EMV cards as their expiry date approaches.

“With more than 190 clients worldwide, TSYS Card Tech has played a significant role in assisting issuing and acquiring banks around the globe to comply with EMV deadlines and lead the way with ground-breaking EMV achievements,” says Edith Kessler-Charalambous, general manager for business expansion at TSYS Card Tech. “This experience proved invaluable to our Cyprus clients."

“We are very excited to be able to offer this new technology to our cardholders,” says Eric F. Boutros, head of information technology at Hellenic Bank. “We have been preparing for this moment for some time and undertook our first pilot for EMV cards as early as September 2006."

“Chip and PIN technology offers multiple benefits to the cardholder, such as reduced risk of fraudulent behaviour and faster transaction times, and will allow for greater customer confidence in the security of each and every card payment transaction," says Petros Petrou, general manager at Marfin Popular Bank, Cyprus.
TSYS has led the innovation of chip and PIN deployment throughout the world — first in Europe during the Southampton trials, then in Canada, and now across multiple payment products.

Enabling EMV-compliance is just one in a series of milestones for TSYS and its subsidiary, TSYS Card Tech. In 2003, TSYS Card Tech helped Hellenic Bank launch Net Secure, a secure e-shopping service that uses a virtual card to ensure safer transactions over the Internet — the first service of its kind in Cyprus. In 2006, it supported the introduction of innovative, interest-free instalment schemes, which provide cardholders with an attractive alternative payment option at the point of sale.

About TSYS Card Tech
TSYS Card Tech is an international provider of server-based solutions that meet the payment needs of financial institutions of all sizes throughout the world. For banks competing in global markets, we offer the perfect combination of market-leading functionality, flexibility and capacity.
Our core products are developed in house and address all aspects of the card-management business, including card issuance, merchant acquiring, authorisation, message switching, key and PIN management, e-commerce and dispute and fraud management.
TSYS Card Tech, formerly known as Card Tech Limited, is a wholly owned TSYS® (NYSE: TSS) subsidiary. Together with TSYS, we serve more than 300 clients in more than 75 countries and support 13 offices around the globe.

About TSYS
TSYS (www.tsys.com) is one of the world’s largest companies for outsourced payment services, offering a broad range of issuer- and acquirer-processing technologies that support consumer-finance, credit, debit and prepaid services for financial institutions and retail companies in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. Based in Columbus, Ga., TSYS (NYSE: TSS) is closely held by Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV), one of FORTUNE magazine’s “Most Admired Companies” and a member of its “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 10 consecutive years. For more information, contact news@tsys.com.

Additional Contact:
Cyle Mims
TSYS Media Relations
+1.706.644.3110
cylemims@tsys.com


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