DFS Discover Financial Services

ATLANTA, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN), a world leader in payment processing services, announced today that it has completed the integration of Discover Network card transaction processing and support services for the majority of its merchants. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010221/ATW031LOGO ) Global Payments now processes Discover Network card transactions for its direct merchants, as well as the merchants in its alliance with Comerica Bank, offering authorization, settlement, and support services in one, integrated, cost-effective, and simplified payments solution. "This is a significant shift in the acquiring market. Discover has adopted the predominate open loop acquiring model in order to streamline and broaden card acceptance. We believe offering a single point of contact for all Discover, Visa and MasterCard transactions will be well received by our customers and will expand the reach of Discover Network cards to small and mid-sized merchants," said Jim Kelly, senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of Global Payments. Global is also currently integrating Discover Network card transaction processing and support services for its independent sales organizations (ISOs). Global expects to complete the integration of all of its independent sales organizations within the first half of next year. "Global's integration of Discover Network card acceptance provides even further benefits," said Gerry Wagner, vice president of acceptance and client relations for Discover Financial Services. "Global's alliance partners and ISOs benefit from greater opportunity to serve small-to mid-sized merchants, merchants benefit from a cost-effective, integrated payments package, and cardholders benefit from increased opportunities to use their Discover Network cards at more of the small- to mid-sized merchant locations where they shop." Discover Network is a business unit of Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS). Discover Financial Services operates the Discover Card with more than 50 million cardmembers, the Discover Network with millions of merchant and cash access locations, and the Goldfish credit card business in the United Kingdom. Discover Financial Services also operates the PULSE ATM/debit network, which serves more than 4,400 financial institutions and includes nearly 260,000 ATMs, as well as POS terminals, nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.discoverfinancial.com/. Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) is a leading provider of electronic transaction processing services for consumers, merchants, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, government agencies and multi- national corporations located throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Global Payments offers a comprehensive line of processing solutions for credit and debit cards, business-to-business purchasing cards, gift cards, electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification and recovery including electronic check services, as well as terminal management. The company also provides consumer money transfer services from the U.S. and Europe to destinations in Latin America, Morocco, and the Philippines. For more information about the company and its services, visit http://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/. This announcement may contain forward-looking statements pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties such as product demand, market and customer acceptance, the effect of economic conditions, competition, pricing, development difficulties, costs of capital, continued certification by credit card associations, the ability to consummate and integrate acquisitions, and other risks detailed in Global Payments Inc.'s SEC filings, including the most recently filed Form 10-Q or Form 10-K, as applicable. Global Payments Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise any of these statements to reflect future circumstances or the occurrence of unanticipated events. Contact: Phyllis McNeill 770 829-8245 http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010221/ATW031LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Global Payments Inc. CONTACT: Phyllis McNeill of Global Payments Inc., +1-770-829-8245, Web site: http://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/ http://www.discoverfinancial.com/

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