TSYS Completes Conversion for Bank of Ireland

Columbus, Ga., Nov. 2, 2004 - TSYS has successfully completed a bankcard conversion for the Bank of Ireland that includes nearly 850,000 cardholder accounts across multiple business segments and processing systems. The implementation also represents Bank of Ireland's largest-ever outsourcing agreement and commences an eight-year relationship with TSYS, which now services more than 90 percent of cardholder accounts in Ireland and more than 15 million accounts in Europe.

In the conversion, Bank of Ireland has consolidated its consumer, commercial and American Express accounts from two in-house systems to TS2^®, which is widely recognized as the world's most advanced multi-national processing system.

"After a careful analysis and planning process, we are pleased with the results of the largest outsourcing decision Bank of Ireland has ever made. TSYS spent the necessary time to understand our business, our strategy and our growth aspirations," says Kevin Murphy, managing director of Bank of Ireland's consumer lending business. "Bank of Ireland now has a better opportunity to serve its customers through increased flexibility and functionality richness. We have found TSYS to be a high-quality processing partner, and an excellent cultural match."

"This new relationship with Bank of Ireland demonstrates our passionate commitment to clients in all of Europe's diverse business communities," says Kelley C. Knutson, managing director of TSYS Europe. "TSYS has demonstrated its stability and reliability in the implementation process for other European clients. The European marketplace continues to recognize that TSYS offers a viable and valuable alternative in payments processing."

Additionally, the conversion implemented multiple other TSYS services for Bank of Ireland. The bank expects to realise significant cost-savings and operational efficiencies this year with the use of TSYS ProphIT^SM, a web-based workflow management system that consolidates customer account data at the point of service. Bank of Ireland also has implemented Total Access^® for data warehousing and data mining; TSYS CardGuard^®, the industry's most comprehensive fraud services system; and ACE Advantage, a fully integrated system for new-account evaluation. Bank of Ireland plans to implement TSYS' Integrated Payments Platform for debit-card accounts later this year.

he Bank of Ireland Group is a financial services company providing an extensive range of banking and other financial services, principally in Ireland, the U.K. and the United States. It is the largest financial institution in the Irish Republic. It has 65,419 stockholders, of whom approximately one-fifth of institutional holders by value are located in Ireland, assets of €98.7 billion and 18,438 employees worldwide. The company is listed on the Irish and London stock exchanges. Organisationally, the Group comprises five principal business groupings: retail financial services, retail businesses, U.K. financial services, wholesale financial services and asset management services.

TSYS (NYSE: TSS) (www.tsys.com) brings integrity and innovation to the world of electronic payment services as the integral link between buyers and sellers in this rapidly evolving universe. Synovus (NYSE: "SNV") owns an 80.8-percent interest in TSYS. For more information, contact news@tsys.com.

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