NOVA Introduces Dynamic Currency Conversion; Merchants and Financial P

    Business Editors

    ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2005--NOVA Information Systems (NOVA) today announced the availability of its Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) solution in the United States. Dynamic Currency Conversion allows international cardholders in the U.S. the option to have their purchases instantly converted at checkout into their local currency. Currency conversion is calculated at a competitive exchange rate, and the U.S. Dollar amount, conversion rate, and home currency amount are all printed on the receipt. Merchants, MSP's and other NOVA partners have the opportunity to share in the revenue generated from conversion fees.
    DCC works with foreign-issued Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Currencies currently supported include the Australian dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar, euro, and Japanese yen. DCC allows cardholders to know exactly how much the transaction costs in their home currency, and since the transaction is settled with the foreign issuer in the cardholder's currency, no back-end conversion fees will be assessed on the cardholder's credit card statement. Merchant funding is done in U.S. dollars, and merchants receive a rebate for all DCC-qualified transactions on their monthly processing statement.
    "Dynamic Currency Conversion is an important solution that underscores NOVA's commitment to a global processing platform," said Pamela Joseph, president and CEO, NOVA Information Systems. "The value proposition is strong for consumers, merchants and our financial partners; it's the solution that pays them back, literally."
    NOVA offers the only end-to-end DCC solution in the industry. NOVA obtains and manages all direct treasury exchange rates in-house. Authorization is done over the NOVA Network and NOVA controls all back-end reconcilement, settlement and funding. No third-party companies are involved; making it easy to service merchant customers and resolve any currency conversion or chargeback issues that may arise. NOVA's affiliate, euroConex, is the largest DCC provider in Europe. EuroConex processed over 5 million DCC transactions in 2004, for more than 10,000 merchant locations.
    The solution is currently Class-A certified and available through NOVA on a Hypercom T7Plus terminal. Additional point-of-sale terminal solutions will be available throughout 2005. NOVA's proprietary network interface specification has been updated to support DCC, giving solution integrators and value-added resellers the ability to enable DCC and certify their solutions on the NOVA Network.

    About NOVA

    NOVA Information Systems, a leader in the payment processing industry, is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB). NOVA partners with financial institutions, independent sales organizations, associations, government agencies and community banks to offer integrated payment processing services to their merchants and retailers. NOVA's products include credit and debit card processing services, software applications, electronic check conversion, gift card solutions and other value-added services to more than 750,000 merchant locations in the United States, Canada and Europe. For more information visit www.novainfo.com.

--30--JAM/cl*

CONTACT: NOVA Information Systems Michelle Graff, 678-731-5064

KEYWORD: NEVADA WASHINGTON MINNESOTA GEORGIA FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING TRAVEL PRODUCT SOURCE: NOVA Information Systems

Copyright Business Wire 2005