TSYS Healthcare Releases White Paper on VEBA Trust Resurgence

Employers Re-examine Healthcare Plan Design

Columbus, Ga., October 29, 2008 — TSYS Healthcare today announced the completion of a white paper on the use of Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) Trusts as a tax-favored tool for benefit funding. John Hickman, partner at Alston & Bird LLP, has co-authored with Mark O'Leary, senior vice president of business development for TSYS Healthcare, a renewed employer view of the standard VEBA.

The paper "Recent Developments Spark Renewed Interest in Tax Exempt Benefit Trusts (VEBA Trusts and Section 115 Trusts)" discusses recent accounting standards changes that require employers to report the unfunded cost of future medical funding obligations. The assets in a VEBA trust can be used to offset some of the disclosure obligation and can reduce impact on the balance sheet.

Many employers have curtailed or replaced their traditional "defined benefit" type of retiree medical coverage with a "defined contribution" approach, such as a retiree medical spending account (RMSA) or other form of HRA (Heath Reimbursement Arrangement).

"When linked to a VEBA trust, the contribution in these accounts can be accessed before and after retirement by the plan participant. The VEBA gives employees the ability to better manage their healthcare benefit dollars into retirement," said Hickman, head of Alston & Bird's Health Benefits Practice where he leads five attorneys devoted exclusively to HIPAA privacy, flexible benefits, and other health and welfare benefit issues.

The IRS has recently issued guidance for health benefit cards, and as such, shifts much of the auto-adjudication burden from the TPA to the merchant.

"IIAS substantiation codes provide for real-time determination of purchase eligibility, which allows ease of use when the funds from an HRA are funneled into an account that can be electronically accessed," said O'Leary. "And when that account is under the umbrella of the VEBA trust, all the participants get a tax benefit. I predict that we'll be seeing continued strong interest with the VEBA and the benefits of electronic accessibility."

The white paper is available online at www.tsys.com/healthcare, or by calling John Hickman at +1.404.881.7885 or TSYS Healthcare at +1.612.338.3871.

About TSYS
TSYS (NYSE: TSS) 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, debt management, healthcare, loyalty and prepaid services for financial institutions and retail companies in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, contact news@tsys.com or log on to www.tsys.com. TSYS routinely posts all important information on its website.

About Alston & Bird
With more than 900 attorneys, Alston & Bird is a leading national AmLaw 100 firm. The firm's core practice areas are intellectual property, complex litigation, corporate and tax, with national industry focuses in employee benefits, health care, energy, financial services, and public policy. The firm has built a reputation as one of the country's best employers, appearing on FORTUNE magazine's ranking of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" nine years in a row, more often and more highly ranked than any other law firm in the United States. The firm has offices in New York, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Ventura County and Research Triangle Park, N.C. For more information on Alston & Bird, please visit www.alston.com.

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

Shawn Roberts
TSYS Investor Relations
+1.706.644.6081
shawnroberts@tsys.com