News Release - 7th May 2008, London

Mi-Pay Signs its First African Operator Customer

7th May 2008 – Leading mobile payments provider Mi-Pay has signed a contract with an East African operator to deliver a mobile money ecosystem to its subscribers in rural communities. Mi-Pay’s technology and expertise will enable subscribers to benefit from international remittance services, as well as support a network of agents to support domestic payments via mobile.

Africa is vastly becoming a hotbed for mobile payment innovation, experiencing explosive growth in pre-paid subscribers. The African operator approached Mi-Pay as it wanted to implement an international money transfer scheme that would enable these subscribers to receive money via their mobile phones from friends and family living and working abroad.

“We’re seeing huge demand from African mobile operators for mobile money transfer services,” said Glen Jennison, Managing Director, Mi-Pay Middle East. “A vast number of Africans are now working abroad, particularly in the Middle East. Our technology provides these people with a cheap, secure and convenient means to send money to friends and family back home.”

Mi-Pay’s portfolio of mobile payments services is available to African operators to help them further monetise their existing prepaid networks. Mi-Pay also provides a service that enables third parties to buy pre-paid airtime and send that airtime to subscribers in Africa enabling them to make calls, and extend the value of their mobile phones. This service provides added value to operators, increases ARPU and reduces churn.

Mi-Pay’s direct channel top-up services enables African subscribers to obtain airtime directly via their handsets, negating the need for physical vouchers that can often be difficult to obtain in remote communities.

Its Streetvendor solution even enables African mobile operators to grow entrepreneurial networks by empowering local agents in Africa to buy and sell airtime to African subscribers. Mi-Pay’s Streetvendor enables these agents to complete transactions straight from a mobile handset, without the need for additional terminals.

“Pre-paid airtime has the potential to become an African currency in its own right,” argues Mi-Pay CEO, Norman Frankel. “Africa has a largely cash based economy, with large parts of the population not familiar with payment cards. All they are looking for is a means to share cash, through a means that they know and trust. The mobile phone is the perfect medium in this instance as the devices continue to emerge as the most sought after devices across the continent.”

About Mi-Pay
Mi-Pay provides an innovative range of products and services that enable consumers around the world to undertake safe and secure financial transactions from their mobile phones. Based in the UK, Mi-Pay also has offices in Dubai, Romania, India and Pakistan, bringing a global perspective to the provision of secure transactions from the consumer’s handset through to settlement. Mi-Pay has vast expertise and service offerings that span pre-pay topups, mobile initiated payments, mobile banking, mobile money transfer, handset based authentication and consultancy. For more information visit: www.mi-pay.com.

For more information contact:

Paul Nolan/Daniel Lowther
CC Group
T: +44 (0)118 9207650
E: mi-pay@the-cc-group.com

News Release - 5th December 2007, London

UBC Media selects Mi-Pay to mPower their newly announced CLIQ service for radio music downloads.

UBC Media has selected Mi-Pay to create the secure platform underpinning their newly announced CLIQ service for mobile music downloads from radio. Mi-Pay’s Mobile Money platform handles all payment transactions for CLIQ Radio through a pre-pay account that enables listeners to instantly buy music from their mobile phones. The Cliq system enables listeners to buy music for £1.25 per track from many commercial radio stations over the UK, including stations within the Emap, Guardian Media Group and Global Radio networks.

Listeners can buy the tracks instantly as they are broadcast on any Cliq radio station by using their mobile phone and will be encouraged by regular announcements on the various radio stations. The service operates on about 85% of mobiles using a Java application also developed by Mi-Pay in conjunction with FE Mobile. Consumers can use the application to review and top-up their accounts before later downloading their chosen song from cliqradio.co.uk.
The Cliq application is free to download and listeners will get their first song for free by texting CLIQ to 78901 from their UK registered mobile phone.

Mi-Pay are also working with the UBC media group to integrate the same technology into digital radios produced by Pure for mid next year. UBC is aiming to make the Cliq system the industry standard for interactive commerce and is therefore making the entire system freely available to all radio operators.
For more information, please contact:

Norman Frankel MD Mi-Pay Ltd – Tel: 01483 794930 or
Simon Cole, CEO, UBC Media Group plc - Tel: 020 7453 1600

News Release - 23rd November 2007, Capetown

Mi-Pay Introduce Mobile Money Suite at AfricaCom

Mi-Pay Ltd, Europe’s leading provider of direct channel pre-pay top up services to mobile operators and e-wallet schemes, introduces its Mobile Money suite of solutions at AfricaCom. The new portfolio of services will generate new revenues and reduce costs for mobile operators and pre-paid wallet providers. Mobile Money consists of a number of service components which are constantly being extended and enhanced to meet operators’ needs.

“Our Mobile Money solutions are a natural extension of our services into markets where pre payment of bills, person-to person mobile money transfer and international mobile cash remittance are needed,” said Norman Frankel, CEO of Mi-Pay. “Mi-Pay understands the operator needs for security and low cost. Our solutions are tailored to meet these operator requirements.”

The new Mobile Money suite consists of:

Top-up Direct – a service that allows pre-paid service providers to quickly roll-out a fully virtual and direct channel shop for the top-up of pre-paid accounts. Customers can interact with the shop using Web, SMS, Java, USSD and IVR channels.

Street Vendor – the Mi-Pay platform that enables mobile operators to receive cash payments for mobile top-up services. The introduction of the Street Vendor platform will herald the elimination of paper vouchers and top up cards which have been subject to widespread fraudulent abuse. By deploying Street Vendor, mobile operators can manage the platform themselves, outsource its management to Mi-Pay or even allow third party agents to sell airtime via a mobile phone direct to consumers.

Mi-Cash – the Mi-Pay stored value account platform enables electronic cash balances to be temporarily stored if the funds are to be used for alternative purposes other than mobile top-up. Mi-Cash stored value can be redeemed through MasterCard branded pre-paid cards or be used as a payment mechanism in its own right.

Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) – a person-to-person [P2P] money transfer application which allows mobile customers to load cash onto their phone and instantly transfer it to any other user. MMT will deliver a new revenue stream for mobile operators as an alternative to its existing scratch card business. The service is fast, secure and has a low operating cost. International mobile operators who work across multiple borders can enable cross border or international mobile money transfer [IMMT] to any subscriber in their network in another country. MMT can also be used for bill payment [e.g. utilities, loan funding and repayment, commercial bill settlement and other regular payments] and even for internet purchases at participating internet merchants.

Frankel continues: “Mi-Pay’s expertise is providing direct channel pre pay top up services to mobile operators. We host the systems, manage all the fraud screening, and give the operators guaranteed funds for the top ups. The operators themselves are therefore left to focus on their core business, running a core mobile network, rather than worrying about fraud, multi-channel application and payment challenges.”

Glen Jennison, Mi-Pay’s Managing Director for Africa and the Middle East based in Dubai, noted: “For mobile network operators, Mi-Pay’s Mobile Money solutions provide immediate new revenue streams and reduced operating costs in a number of areas. Street Vendor and Mi-Cash provide a compelling solution for remote management of airtime sales and when linked to pre-paid cards also enable controlled, real-time access to cash.”

For more information, please contact Norman Frankel on +441483794930 or Glen Jennison on +971 55 968 9502 or, during AfricaCom, Greg Lee on +27848524955.

News Release - 21st November 2007, London

Close Ventures invests £1.8m in Mi-Pay’s mobile payments service

Mi-Pay Ltd and Close Ventures are pleased to announce their agreement on an investment of £1.8 million for a minority stake in Mi-Pay Limited. Mi-Pay is the leading provider of mobile payment services to a number of blue chip customers, including KPN Telfort, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco Mobile, and Vodafone (UK and Netherlands).

Mi-Pay provides a range of mobile payment services. To date the Company has focused on enabling pre-paid mobile customers to top up their accounts directly from their phone or via the web. Mi- Pay’s service gives mobile customers payment card and direct debit functionality direct from their phone, while providing mobile operators with fraud screening and risk-management services. Mi-Pay is the European market leader for this service.

Mi-Pay is also in discussion with various blue-chip customers around the world to enable mobile remittances, both internationally and domestically, as well as cash-based top ups managed through the mobile handset. These latter services will be focused on developing economies, where new mobile services can grow substantially over a short period.

Mi-Pay, based in Surrey, UK, was founded in 2004 and has already delivered strong revenue growth year-on-year. The investment by Close Ventures allows Mi-Pay to continue its rate of expansion in a dynamic and high-growth market, whilst also developing other mobile payment services. This investment also allows Mi-Pay to buy out the minority shareholders of its subsidiary, Digital Payments Ltd.

“My team and I are delighted to have the funding and support from Close Ventures,” commented Norman Frankel, CEO of Mi-Pay. “We have identified many significant opportunities in this dynamic market and with this funding we can now take advantage of them.”

“We are very excited about the prospects for Mi-Pay; the potential for growth is enormous. The Company is well positioned with leading customers and partnerships in a fast-moving market. Mi-Pay has an excellent reputation within its niche, a clearly defined strategy for growth and a first-class management team” said Ed Lascelles, Director at Close Ventures.

Mi-Pay received legal advice from Bob Wilkin of Afrormosia. Ian Ivory of Berwin Leighton Paisner acted for Close Ventures, and Rebecca Guerin and James Killing of Vantis Corporate Finance provided financial due diligence.

Please visit us at our websites
www.closeventures.co.uk www.mi-pay.com www.digitalpayments.com

For further information please contact:

Norman Frankel, Mi-Pay Tel: 01483 794930

Ed Lascelles, Close Ventures Tel: 020 7422 7830

Roddi Vaughan-Thomas, Peregrine Communications Tel: 020 7822 2303

Ian McCann/ Paul Nolan, CompanyCare Communications Tel: +44 1189 207651

News Release - 7th March 2007, London

Mi-Pay processes mobile payments using Postilion
Ease of customisation and open standards approach key to success

London, United Kingdom – 6 March 2007 – Postilion, a leading provider of payment processing solutions for retailers and financial services organisations, today announced that Mi-Pay, an outsourced mobile payments provider, successfully uses Postilion software to enable its customers to offer mobile payments services to consumers.

The Mi-Pay Payment Gateway is driven by Postilion, which was chosen for its ease of use, flexibility and open standards architecture. Using Postilion, Mi-Pay can run a wide range of payment transaction services for mobile operators, mobile e-commerce providers and transport companies. The innovative services offered by Mi-Pay include the following:

Direct top-up and eMoney transfer payment services that reduce top-up fees, enable remittance of funds and make it easy for consumers to pay for goods on the move.

Street Vendor, which allows distributors who run networks of top-up agents to reduce costs and, in real-time, manage the distribution and supply chain logistics. The service provides connectivity to pre-paid top-up systems and the reporting to manage the distribution chain.

Secure Java and SMS applications that allow secure authentication, banking, bill collections and payments from the handset for consumers to purchase digital content and merchants to accept non-cash payments where a point-of-sale infrastructure may not exist.

The Postilion product handles transactions made through these services, switching them to retailers and merchants, and providing centralised real-time reporting on all activity.

The mobile payments market is a competitive one, and new services have to be delivered quickly and to a high standard. Mi-Pay needed a system that would be simple to support in the long term and that was able to expand as the company won new clients and added new services for existing ones. Postilion met these requirements and has been a key part of Mi-Pay’s continuing success in allowing its customers to offer consumers a variety of new services.

The Carphone Warehouse – a Mi-Pay customer – has successfully rolled out a pre-pay mobile top- up solution for its Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), including TalkTalk, Fresh and Mobile World. This is made possible through the Mi-Pay Payment Gateway, which handles all top-up requests made by customers on The Carphone Warehouse website and by SMS.

“When we looked at the products on the market, we quickly realised how important a solution based on an open systems platform would be to meeting our desire for quality of service,” said Norman Frankel, managing director, Mi-Pay. “Being able to customise the application and expand the range of services, channels and back-end payment interfaces that we could offer was a crucial part of our overall business model; and using a proprietary system would have meant huge amounts of additional expense and a slower route to market. Postilion gave us the flexibility and the robust platform we needed, and we could see from the other Postilion customers that we visited how simple it was to support in the longer term.”

“Mi-Pay has pushed forward what it is possible to do in mobile payments, and it is working with some of the biggest names in the industry,” commented Jan Kruger, Group President of Postilion. “We are very happy to be involved in the innovative projects that Mi-Pay is bringing to market. Postilion is a key part of delivering new, profitable services and increasing overall consumer satisfaction.”

-Ends-

About Mi-Pay
Mi-Pay is a leading provider of mobile initiated payment services offering outsourced pre-paid top- up, stored value (micro-payment) services and transactional marketing (Loyalty) services. Target customers include mobile operators, e-Money providers media, utilities, transport companies and local authorities.

Mi-Pay’s payment services and value added business operations enable cost-effective supply and operation of:
• Mobile Initiated Payments (top-up and secure SMS/Java payments)
• Micro Payments (white-labelled micro-payment accounts)
• Media Instant Payments (services for Digital Broadcasting services)
• Meter Initiated Payments (top-up for wireless utility meter service providers)
• Mobile and Internet Payment Service Provider (payments for digital content providers, transport companies and local authorities)

For more information, please visit http://www.mi-pay.com/

About Postilion
Postilion, a subsidiary of S1 Corporation (NASDAQ: SONE), is a leading global provider of open-systems electronic payment processing solutions with offices on five continents serving customers in more than 50 countries. The Postilion product drives payments – including advanced financial transactions such as prepay and self-service – through ATMs, POS terminals, phones, and Internet access points. Postilion provides consolidated management information, integrated card management, EMV chip enablement, and loyalty software solutions. It reduces transaction processing costs, speeds time to market for new products and offerings, improves analysis of customer transactions and business opportunities, and increases profitability.

For more information, please visit http://www.postilion.com/

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements include statements with respect to our financial condition, results of operations and business. The words "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," "projects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "forecasts," "intends" or similar terminology identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions made using information currently available to us. Because these statements reflect our current views concerning future events, they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The risk factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and available on our web site at www.s1.com or the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov) provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our forward-looking statements. Except as provided by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Press Contacts
Martina von Bonin Mark Kember
martina.vonbonin@postilion.com mark.kember@axicom.com
+44 1932 574 700 +44 20 8392 4062

News Release - 2nd October 2006, London

Mi-Pay signs CPNI to provide top-up services
New win will enable banks to offer mobile phone top-up services to their customer base in Europe

Mi-Pay, a European based pre-pay solutions payment provider, announces that it has been selected by CPNI Inc. as its partner to provide top-up services to the CPNI client base of European banks. The agreement will allow mobile carrier customers to top-up their prepaid accounts directly from their bank account simply by using their phone.

Pre-paid as a payment method has grown in popularity among mobile phone customers, who are increasingly topping-up their pre-paid accounts via online channels as well as using pre-paid models to extend into new industries such as transport, utilities and digital music. As more customers choose channels that are deemed ‘cardholder not present’ by the financial institutions and payment schemes, the growth of pre-paid top-up services are extending into direct channels enabling customers to top-up via the web, SMS, Java and IVR. Mi-Pay specialises in providing top-up services from these channels with a rich service platform of features.

CPNI’s Phone Authorized Transfer (P.A.T.)™ solution is a convenient, fast, secure, low cost way for payment transactions to occur using any telephone. Mobile carrier customers simply dial a local number to access an easy to use Interactive Voice Response system that is connected to CPNI’s client base of financial institutions. After entering their PIN (Personal Identification Number), choosing the amount to transfer and confirming the transaction, their prepaid account is then topped up instantly. The P.A.T. mobile top-up solution can be used from any phone, anywhere in the world and on any platform or network.

Patrick Bird, Chief Executive and founder of Canada-based CPNI said: “Mi-Pay was chosen because of their in-depth knowledge of the top-up market. They have proven results in the direct channel top-up market, with an increasing list of mobile operators outsourcing business to them. Mi-Pay provides us with a way to offer our customers, the banks, a rapid route of offering a broad European top-up service”. As a result of this agreement, Mi-Pay will perform the final top-up service leg of a transaction on behalf of CPNI’s bank customers throughout Europe.

Norman Frankel, Managing Director of Mi-Pay said: “CPNI offers the banks new services for their customer base. Top-up capability is particularly valuable as on average over 60% of banks’ customers in each European market uses a pre-paid mobile phone. Furthermore the CPNI service (P.A.T.) will provide cost savings to mobile operators while simultaneously providing their customers with a fast, convenient way to top-up their mobile phone account directly from a bank account. We are delighted that CPNI has chosen Mi-Pay as their European partner as this further endorses Mi-Pay’s position of rapidly becoming Europe’s leading virtual direct channel top-up services provider. ” .

For further information, please contact:

Brady Frost
Director, Business Development & Partner Services
CPNI Inc.
Tel: +1.617.619.3545
brady.frost@cpni-inc.com

Norman Frankel
Mi-Pay Ltd
Tel: +44 7940 759268
norman.frankel@mi-pay.com

About CPNI Inc.

CPNI Inc.™ (CPNI), a Canadian based software company headquartered in Toronto, has built a technology solution that enables a convenient, fast, secure, low cost way for payment transactions to occur using any telephone. The CPNI Phone Authorized Transfer (P.A.T.)™ solution can work anywhere in the world, with any type of cell or wire line phone, in any language and on any service provider’s network. It allows for financial transactions to occur without the need to input personal information such as a bank account or credit card number. Working with territory partners and financial institutions, CPNI’s solution is radically altering the financial message acquisition process for domestic and cross-border funds transfer. For more information about CPNI Inc. please visit www.cpni-inc.com.

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 18th September 2006, London

Mi-Pay selects Ambiron TrustWave for PCI Compliance Validation
Programme to ensure pre-paid top-up payment services comply with latest industry initiatives

London, 18 September 2006 – Mi-Pay, a European based pre-pay solutions payment provider, announces that it has selected AmbironTrustWave, as its compliance provider for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). PCI was introduced in 2004 and is endorsed by all the major card associations as the standard of due care for securing credit card information that is processed and/or transmitted by merchants and payment service providers. AmbironTrustWave is a leading Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) in Europe.

Pre-paid as a payment method has grown in popularity among mobile phone customers, who are increasingly topping-up their pre-paid accounts via online channels as well as using pre-paid models to extend into new industries such as transport, utilities and digital music. As more customers choose channels that are deemed ‘cardholder not present’ by the financial institutions and payment schemes, compliance with industry initiatives such as PCI by the payment service providers is critical in protecting customers of the pre-paid companies.

Brooks Wallace, Managing Director of London-based AmbironTrustWave Ltd. said: “Mi-Pay is an excellent example of a company protecting its customers and brand name through the security of critical business information such as credit card data. Over the past two years, we have helped numerous European merchants and service providers validate compliance with PCI with the end result being a more secure transaction supply chain for payment service providers, merchants and cardholders.” As a result of this agreement, Mi-Pay will have access to AmbironTrustWave’s TrustKeeper® compliance management solutions, which provides penetration testing, compliance reporting, and outlines any remediation actions required to address identified vulnerabilities.

Norman Frankel, Managing Director of Mi-Pay said: “AmbironTrustWave were chosen because of their extensive track record particularly with the payment schemes such as Visa and MasterCard, their European spread and their blue-chip client base. In engaging with Mi-Pay, they articulated the principles of partnership wanting to understand our business and proactively keeping us abreast of industry developments, this gave us the comfort they would continue to support us as our business grew and the demands of the industry on security and compliance changed. Mi-Pay prides itself on providing a 1st class service to its client base and remain committed to ensuring that we lead the way in protecting their businesses.”

For further information, please contact:

Brooks Wallace
AmbironTrustWave Ltd
Tel: +44 207 849 3261
bwallace@atwcorp.com

Norman Frankel
Mi-Pay Ltd
Tel: +44 7940 759268
norman.frankel@mi-pay.com

About AmbironTrustWave Ltd

London-based AmbironTrustWave Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AmbironTrustWave, a leading provider of information security and compliance management solutions to Fortune 2000 businesses and the public sector. The company's flagship product, TrustKeeper®, provides data security and compliance services to approximately 30,000 businesses throughout the world. The AmbironTrustWave Trusted CommerceSM program helps banks, merchants, service providers and software developers mitigate their risk by validating compliance with industry best practices for safeguarding information endorsed by American Express, Discover, MasterCard International, Visa International and Visa USA. AmbironTrustWave clients include financial organizations, global electronic exchanges, educational institutions and business services firms. The Company also provides services to several government agencies. AmbironTrustWave is headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the United States and Europe. For more information, please visit www.atwcorp.co.uk

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 25th May 2006, London

Mi-Pay successfully completes third round of funding
Mi-Pay raises £200,000 of complementary development capital

Mi-Pay is pleased to announce the closing its third round of financing. The company has successfully placed new shares with two new investors. In this round, Mi-Pay has raised £200,000 of complementary development capital.

One of the new investors, Nick Wright of Platypus Capital Management stated his enthusiasm for the prospects of the Company and the management team. "We believe this space has tremendous potential and we liked the way the company has developed so far. A good leadership and a good team are key criteria for our investments."

Founder and Managing Director Norman Frankel expressed his excitement at the level of interest in the participation to this round. "We were twice oversubscribed and reached 'commitments in principle' for the whole amount within two weeks of launching the placing."

About Mi-Pay
Mi-Pay is an experienced business process outsourcer in the rapidly growing 'direct' mobile prepaid top-up channel, e-money stored value, transport and WIFI markets. Mi-Pay is already working internationally with mobile operators and e-money providers and is delivering on its promises in groundbreaking market sectors.


For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 13th March 2006, London

Carphone Warehouse chooses Digital Payments for website and SMS top up
Digital Payments rolls out pre-pay mobile top up solution for two MVNOs

Digital Payments, the new media payments services provider founded by Voca, Retail Decisions and Mi-Pay, has been appointed by The Carphone Warehouse to roll out its pre-pay mobile top-up payments solution for its two Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO’s) – Fresh and Mobile World.

Ian Price, Managing Director, Digital Payments, says “We are delighted with this appointment. The Carphone Warehouse is a highly respected and innovative brand using new payment methods to create additional convenience and benefits for its customers. This service is a real first - Direct Debit payments that can be triggered via mobile messaging.”

After customers have registered online via the Carphone Warehouse website, they will be able to pay by Direct Debit or Credit Card[1] using either or both the website and SMS to top up their own mobile or those of friends and family on the same network. Digital Payments is working with e-Pay in order to deliver the top-up to the network.

Carphone Warehouse Operations Director, Thomas Scrope says “This new payments option is aimed at increasing customer convenience and satisfaction. Offering top up via SMS and our website is a logical step for Carphone Warehouse and we are pleased to be working with Digital Payments on this completely new facility. Pay As You Go continues to be a very popular choice for our customers and we are continually striving to find new ways to make our services easier to use. The service is available now via our website and launch in the shops is under way.”

Benefits of this new service include:

• Works 24hrs a day, anywhere
• Can be used abroad
• Completely secure
• Backed by Direct Debit Guarantee
• Supports Direct Debit from all UK banks
• Customers can top up family and friends


About Digital Payments

Digital Payments offers a range of transaction services to enable retailers to confidently and securely take consumer payments through new media channels.

The new company combines the leading UK Direct Debit expertise of Voca (formerly BACS Limited) with world class fraud management from Retail Decisions and the technical innovation of Mi-Pay to deliver a low cost and secure payment service for digital commerce.

[1] Payment method options depend on the MVNO.

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 16th November 2005, Islamabad

Abba Projects teams up with Mi-Pay to provide multi-channel mobile prepay top-up service in Pakistan.
Launch of electronic top-up initiative in Pakistan, to provide improved services to customers at lower costs

Abba Projects, an Islamabad based provider of telecommunication services, has launched a multi-channel electronic pre-pay top-up service for Pakistan in a deal with Mi-Pay, a European based mobile pre-pay solutions payment provider. Working with Mi-Pay, Abba is now able to offer its customers, the mobile operators, internet service providers, utility companies, retailers and distributors a full multi-channel electronic pre-pay top-up payment service. Mi-Pay already provide secure electronic top-up services for mobile operators in Europe.

The top-up service provides connectivity to the existing Mi-Pay back-end system to manage e-commerce transactions and pre-paid accounts as well as driving transactions to ensure authentication with the funds provider or bank and the immediate transfer of funds into the customer pre-paid account. The entire service enables customers to have greater flexibility and an easier, faster to use experience to top-up their mobile accounts at any time.

The service allows operators to reduce the costs associated with pre-paid top-ups using scratch cards and extract added benefits for both themselves and their customers. By removing overheads Abba and Mi-Pay can significantly reduce an Operators cost per transaction by over 30%, and aims to lower this even further in the future. Mi-Pay drives all transactions and provides a secure platform that enables mobile top-ups via new channels such as Point of Sale, Bank ATM, SMS, Mobile Java, WEB and IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition), and also accommodates existing top up methods such as scratch cards and e-top up.

Following implementation, Mi-Pay’s existing customers have found that customers are purchasing top ups more frequently and of higher amounts, due to the ease of using the system. Customers are able to purchase top-ups regardless of their physical location. Operators are also able to provide enhanced customer services and take advantage of direct marketing opportunities and incentive schemes through the SMS channel. The service also provides an infrastructure that could enable e-Commerce to grow in Pakistan.

Abdul Khaliq, Chief Executive of Abba Projects said: “Pakistan has the fastest growth in mobile telecommunications in Asia and is now ready to embrace more cost efficient top-up methods. This is a traditional evolution for most markets and in moving to electronic top-up every party will benefit, for Pakistan it also represents a natural roadmap to take advantage of the expected market growth in e-Commerce over the next few years. A key criteria for Abba Projects with this service was the need for a rapid service capability with the flexibility and high integrity, security and performance throughout the system, for both immediate needs and as channels expand in the future. Mi-Pay has demonstrated that it can provide Abba Projects and Pakistan with these capabilities and market expertise to support the countries growth in demand for pre-paid services. ”.

Norman Frankel, Managing Director of Mi-Pay said: “This agreement to work together with Abba Projects underlines Mi-Pay’s position as a leading mobile payment and top-up processing service provider. Abba required a partner that were innovative, experts that could drive down costs to mobile operators and provide an existing and highly secure service capability. Mi-Pay provides the flexibility and processing power for Abba to achieve these cost reductions and also ensures that all transactions are protected by the highest levels of security”.

About Abba Projects
Abba Projects is a multi-national company formed by industry experts with global experience to provide telecommunications solutions / e-Commerce and electronic pre-pay top-up services in Pakistan.
Abba supplies cutting edge management software solutions and consultancy services to telecommunication operators and equipment vendors in Pakistan. Abba projects differentiates itself from competitors and maintains its position as industry leader through its strategy of:

• Focusing on the needs of the telecommunications operators and vendors
• Building on its worldclass capabilities within core speciality markets
• Growing and sustaining long-standing relationships
• Maintaining an international market focus

For more information, please visit www.abbaprojects.com

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 7th June 2005, London

Mi-Pay, Voca and Retail Decisions form a new joint venture, Digital Payments.
With Direct Debit at its core, Digital Payments will make payments in new media environments safer, more convenient and cost effective

Retail Decisions (ReD), a world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing, Voca, the leading secure payments processor (formerly BACS Limited) and Mi-Pay, a m-payments and stored value provider, today announced the formation of a joint venture company, Digital Payments.

The three companies bring together unique capabilities to provide an unrivalled payment solution in terms of expertise and technology. ReD is the recognised industry leader in card payment processing and fraud prevention; Voca’s transaction engine faultlessly drives over 4.5 billion payments including processing all Direct Debits in the UK; Mi-Pay brings extensive knowledge of the mobile, e-money and micropayments environments.

Digital Payments will be a first - enabling retailers to manage consumer payments on digital sales channels including digital television, the internet and mobile phones. Consumers will be able to pay by Direct Debit across these channels for the first time in the same way as they use a credit card. By using Direct Debit consumers can organise direct withdrawals from their bank securely and with ease.

ReD will provide the very best fraud prevention and payment processing, bank account validation and customer behavior profiling. Carl Clump CEO of Retail Decisions stated: “In the last five years ReD has delivered compound double-digit growth annually in terms of revenue and operating profit. Working with Digital Payments to offer digital retailers Direct Debit, is one of the steps we are taking to ensure good levels of growth over the next five years as well.””

Voca brings state of the art transaction processing, merchant billing and settlement. Marion King, CEO, Voca stated: "It's a great achievement to launch this joint venture with such innovative payments companies as ReD and Mi-Pay. I'm delighted that we can combine our expertise to provide robust payment solutions for consumers that increases availability of direct debit in new media channels. Voca brings over 36 years of payments expertise and leading technical insight to the joint venture alongside its role as a key trusted partner of banks, governments, corporations and consumers”.

Mi-Pay brings the merchant interface, consumer interface, message switching and digital channel applications. Norman Frankel, Managing Director Mi-Pay Limited stated: “The business process and technology expertise that Digital Payments offers is an exciting proposition to merchants. This is an ideal solution for interactive television channels, mobile operators, mobile content providers and e-commerce merchants.”

In creating Digital Payments Ltd in conjunction with Voca and Retail Decisions, Mi-Pay, ReD and Voca have provided a real alternative to the current crop of limited mobile payment services based on Credit Card or premium/reverse billing SMS.

Through Digital Payments, consumers will be able to safely and securely make payments to top-up prepaid phones, to purchase digital content or transfer funds to friends and family from their mobile phone handsets using a single Direct Debit attached to their bank account. Merchants will be able to market their goods and services to consumers using this low risk, low cost method of payment that offers reduced rates of potential fraud and charge-backs compared to the current methods being used in this market area.

For more information please contact:
Ian Price, Managing Director, Digital Payments
m +44 (0)7816 276192
e ian.price@voca.com
w http://www.digitalpayments.com

Please visit the Digital Payments web site at www.digitalpayments.com.

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.

News Release - 11th January 2005, London

CEO's comments published in Mobile Communications International
In the eMoney. An article by the team behind ‘A Week in Wireless’

If there’s one thing mobile operators know how to do it’s to make hay while the sun shines. They’ve been doing it from the get-go. Remember handsets at thousands of pounds apiece, line rentals equivalent to monthly food bills, per-minute charges that could bankrupt a heavy user and roaming revenues comparable to the GDP of a small developing nation. At times, the natural laws of competition have forced more consumer-friendly pricing to filter down to the streets but, when this hasn’t happened, the regulators and legislators have stepped in.

Mobile content, many would argue, is just the latest sphere to be exploited by greedy mobile carriers. They have enjoyed huge margins at the expense of their content partners, selling audio-visual content, often using premium SMS.

According to Norman Frankel, late of LogicaCMG and now managing director of Mi-Pay, the eMoney directive from the EU, which will likely meet widespread adoption among national FSAs (financial services agencies) could cause the tunnels in the operators’ latest goldmine to collapse. The Informer was chatting to Frankel this week and he predicted that the eMoney industry is set to “gallop ahead” from the second quarter of this year.

Readers may be aware of the situation as it affects the mobile operators. As far as the EU is concerned, operators can and store money for their customers’ prepaid accounts with no interference, so long as the customers only buy operators’ services; voice, text and operator-owned and branded content. Any goods purchased that fall outside of the operators’ specific remit must be bought with funds stored in an “approved, licensed and locally regulated eMoney account,” said Frankel.

Operators are coming under pressure to upgrade their prepaid billing systems so that they are able to “report to light banking standards,” Frankel pointed out and as a result the cellular operating community is lobbying ardently against the EU directive. “It’s the only industry that’s been allowed a protection zone around it and that’s just because they have more money to throw at the situation. The only lawyers fighting [the directive] have been funded by mobile operators.” As a result, Frankel observed, it is not yet clear when operators will be forced to comply; it could be this year, next, or even 2007.

The danger for operators, Frankel suggests, is that as they pour time, money and effort into stalling implementation of the directive, the eMoney industry will grow and thrive. Since eMoney companies will need to charge competitively in order to survive, and since the only financially viable way to sell micro-payment items like mobile content is through a prepaid pot of funds, the content owners may find themselves attracted to doing business with the eMoney firms and not the operators.

Operators currently move money into prepaid accounts at a cost of 7.5 per cent, said Frankel while still routinely enjoying margins of 20 – 50 per cent on premium SMS content delivery. Since they control the channel, they call the shots. eMoney companies will more likely charge seven – 15 per cent to the merchants. “Disney has been complaining for ages about cost and the margins on content sold through the mobile channel,” said Frankel, “they’re losing 40 per cent. But if that content is sold via the internet or isn’t sold using premium SMS, they won’t be losing money.”

It is conceivable that the growth of the eMoney industry could induce a shift in the ways in which mobile content is purchased. Operators won’t be able to fight the legislation for ever; already in Italy operators are forced to comply, although Norman Frankel suggested they have found loopholes which ease their situation somewhat.

Either way, operators face something of a struggle. Do they invest in upgrades to existing systems allowing them to report in accordance with eMoney licence conditions? Do they outsource (which is Frankel’s angle)? Or do they wait and purchase an eMoney firm when the business case and the market has become more established.

Operators should have learned by now that nothing lasts forever.

For other relevant news visit Companycare Communications, Mi-Pay's public relations agency.