TSYS® Successfully Converts Phase II of Sears Card Portfolio
TSYS Undertakes Industry’s Largest Conversion, Strengthens TSYS’ Retail Position
Columbus, Ga., March 22, 1999 — Total System Services, Inc.® (TSYS®) (NYSE: "TSS") successfully converted 24 million Sears (NYSE: "S") credit card accounts to TS2®, its state-of-the-art, Year 2000-compliant card-processing system during the week of March 2. These accounts, the second part of a three-phase conversion, represent 36% percent of the Sears private-label card portfolio. Since completing the conversion, TSYS now processes 31 million Sears accounts. TSYS will convert the final phase in the second quarter of 1999, thus completing the largest conversion – a total of 65 million accounts – in the history of the card industry and making Sears TSYS’ largest client.
"TS2 gives issuers virtually unlimited pricing options and marketing initiatives, a myriad of rebate and reward programs, and is highly customizable," according to TSYS Vice President and Sears Account Manager, Roddy Hunter. He continued, "We were very pleased with the successful conversion of 7.2 million and 24 million accounts in phases one and two, respectively, and we are presently planning for and anticipating the successful conversion of the remaining 34 million accounts. In many ways, Sears is the most important name in the retail business. Our successful relationship with them is tremendously important. I would like to think that we couldn’t get a better endorsement than Sears."
Kevin Phalen, Sears Director, Portfolio Conversion, said, "TS2 enables us to customize product offerings to particular customers and quickly move new products to market. We’re going from no flexibility to essentially infinite flexibility, and we are very pleased that we have moved these accounts onto TS2 and look forward to our entire card portfolio operating on the system."
The Sears credit portfolio is by far the largest in the retail industry – bigger than the next 10 combined. In 1998, more than 32 million Sears accounts were active, and the portfolio’s average managed receivables were nearly $28 billion. Sears, Roebuck and Co. is a leading U.S. retailer of apparel, home and automotive products and services, with annual revenues of more than $41 billion. For more information, visit Sears Web site at www.sears.com.
TSYS (www.totalsystem.com) is one of the world’s leading information technology processors of credit, debit, commercial and private-label cards. An 80.8% owned subsidiary of Synovus Financial Corp.® (NYSE: "SNV") (www.synovus.com), TSYS serves card-issuing institutions throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Creating innovative processing solutions, TSYS makes it possible for more than 143 million cardholders to use their cards and enables card-issuing institutions to profitably compete and better serve their customers through our world-class people, technology and service.
Contacts:
Danita Gibson-Lloyd
Corporate Communications Manager
ph. (706) 649-5578
dgibsonlloyd@totalsystem.com
Kimberly Knight
Corporate Communications Specialist
ph. (706) 644-1218
kknight@totalsystem.com