Prepaid Cards Support Broader Consumer-Finance Propositions

York, England,  November 22, 2005 - As new applications for prepaid cards emerge in Europe, now is the time for financial institutions to design prepaid services that complement other products in their overall payments scheme, says John Goodale, director of retail and prepaid services for TSYS Europe.

"Following the experiences we've seen in the U.S. prepaid market, banks may be surprised to learn where their opportunities lie," says Mr. Goodale, who has supported prepaid strategies for clients such as The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Vendex KBB, Sonae Distribução, and others.

"In addition to standing on its own as a successful product, prepaid applications can be designed to support other credit products, create alternatives for consumers with credit problems, extend co-branding relationships, support non-card activities like insurance and bring new consumers into the cards market," Goodale says.

Mr. Goodale will discuss business model considerations and integrating prepaid applications with the broader payments scheme at VRL Publishing's Prepaid Cards In Europe 2005 Conference & Expo, which will be held 28-29 November at Le Meridien Piccadilly in London. For more information, see www.prepaidcardseurope.com.

As director of retail and prepaid services for TSYS Europe's business expansion team, Mr. Goodale's recent successes in developing closed-loop prepaid propositions provided a foundation for current initiatives with branded (or open-loop) prepaid cards. Mr. Goodale offers extensive experience in payments across the banking and retail sectors in Europe. He has studied extensively how the lessons from the U.S. prepaid market can be transferred to Europe. Before joining TSYS, Mr. Goodale was a management consultant for KPMG and DMR/Fujitsu.

About TSYS
TSYS (www.tsys.com) is one of the world's largest companies for outsourced payment services, offering a broad range of issuer and acquirer processing technologies that support consumer finance, credit, debit and prepaid services for financial institutions and retail companies in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. Based in Columbus, Ga., TSYS (NYSE: TSS) is 80 percent held by Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV), one of FORTUNE magazine's "Most Admired Companies" and a member of its "100 Best Companies to Work For" Hall of Fame. For more information, contact news@tsys.com.

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