Cooperative Financial Services Renews Card Issuing And Processing Agreement With First Data Until 2017

Bank's UK debit and credit card portfolio to be migrated to FirstVision™

LONDON - May 20, 2009 (AllPayNews) - First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing services, and The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), part of The Co-operative Group, the UK's largest consumer co-operative, have announced an eight year extension of their card issuing and processing agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, First Data will continue to provide support across the entire payments value chain, handling processing for approximately 1.7 million debit cards and one million credit cards per annum. In addition, the agreement encompasses a range of surround services for CFS including the provision of First Data's commercial card management suite, D.Cal. First Data will also manage the migration of CFS's credit and debit card portfolios to FirstVisionTM, its global issuing solution, during the course of the next 12 months.

"First Data has delivered considerable value and expertise to our business to date and this was a significant factor in our decision to extend our partnership with them," said Tony Sellers, head of payment services at The Co-operative Financial Services. "In FirstVision we have a single and comprehensive solution for our card payment processing needs which will enable us to get even closer to our customers and continue to deliver a broad range of products and services to support their various needs."

Roger Bracken, UK managing director at First Data said, "First Data has a longstanding relationship with CFS having supported the development of their UK cards businesses for more than 15 years. We believe that FirstVision is one of the most robust and complete payment solutions in the marketplace today. Its flexibility and rich functionality will enable CFS to quickly deliver new products and services to support its strategic goals now and in the future."

FirstVisionTM is the new name for First Data's strategic processing service and builds on the proven strengths of VisionPLUS®, the platform of choice for many of the world's leading issuers. The company's scale and strength has enabled First Data to continue to invest through the current economic downturn, focusing on the development of a single solution that delivers consistent functionality and technology in support of banks and major retailers around the world. From data centres in Argentina, China and Germany, FirstVision today supports customers across Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. FirstVision brings together an advanced processing platform and a fully-integrated suite of market-leading, value-added services.

About Co-operative Financial Services
The Co-operative Financial Services is part of The Co-operative Group, which is the world's largest consumer co-operative with over 3 million members. CFS currently has 5.5m customers and employs over 8,000 staff. It has 116 retail and corporate branches/centres and over 1,000 face to face financial advisers. It has £38bn of assets under management across its retail and corporate business areas.

About First Data
First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

Media Contacts
Helen Owen
Marketing & Communications Manager,
UK & Ireland
First Data
+44 (0) 1268 297 278
howen@firstdatacorp.co.uk

Alejandra Solis
Press Officer
The Co-operative Financial Services
+44 (0) 161 903 3808
alejandra.solis@cfs.coop