Optimal Payments Announces new NETBANX 6 Payment Processing Service

MONTREAL, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Optimal Payments Plc (LSE: OPAY), the leading alternative payments business, announces the launch of its NETBANX 6 payment processing service. Optimal Payments' NETBANX service provides payment processing for many leading eCommerce businesses, including Reebok, Canada's Loto Quebec and the UK'sShop Direct Group.

The new version, NETBANX 6, addresses many of the needs of merchants in the rapidly changing eCommerce market today including customer and cardholder data security and protection, as well as shopping cart conversions, multinational cross border payments and reduction of operational costs.

The most significant enhancements allow businesses to completely outsource the holding of private customer data to the PCI-DSS level 1 certified NETBANX service, including names, shipping and billing addresses, email and payment information. This significantly reduces their risk of holding these data elements on their servers.

The other improvements are designed to increase a merchant's revenue including a 'frictionless' single-click check-out that uses enhanced tokenisation capabilities; new regional payment types, and enhanced handling of multiple currencies. Other capabilities improve a merchant's operational flexibility or decrease costs, including new batch processing features, an automated report delivery service, and a new back office user experience.

This launch marks a milestone in the platform integration following the acquisition of the Optimal Payments business earlier this year, and continues to demonstrate the company's commitment to delivering innovative solutions to its clients.  A number of major eCommerce merchants are already using the NETBANX 6 platform and are processing all their transactions through the service, such as Reebok, Loto Quebec, Coastal Contacts/Lensway and Beyond the Rack.

François Poulin, General Manager of Espacejeux at Loto Quebec said "Like most online businesses, we are concerned about fraudsters. It costs millions of dollars to properly secure and keep customer data safe. The new capabilities in NETBANX 6 mean that we don't have to store any payment data for our customers. Working with Optimal Payments, and their NETBANX 6 payment service, as our partner for our http://www.espacejeux.com  online gaming site is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways for us to make sure that both our customers' financial data and business is protected and safe."

Danny Chazonoff, President of Optimal Payments' NETBANX division, commented:  "We are very excited by the launch of the NETBANX 6 platform - it is great news for both our existing customers and the eCommerce market place in general, providing businesses with additional features to improve conversions, streamline operations, and critically reduce business risk. The security of customer accounts and cardholder data is a constant concern for online merchants, and NETBANX 6 with its differential and value-added features is a major step forward in helping them minimise that risk."

It is very easy for existing Optimal Payments' NETBANX merchants to adopt NETBANX 6, requiring - in the majority of cases - no migration or reintegration.

Further details about NETBANX  6

The easy to implement NETBANX platform offers an innovative payment processing solution that can be tailored to individual merchants needs.  It provides customisable features that merchants look for in today's rapidly changing eCommerce market:

<p>Reduced business risk: fully outsourced privacy handling, with customer profile management and tokenisation; hot standby capabilities; enhanced risk management services (including machine fingerprinting/responsible reporting entities (RRE)).

Improved shopping conversions: market-leading abilities to convert shopping baskets to completed orders with features such as frictionless checkout and more payment types, particularly in international markets. New payment types added to the existing VISA, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Diners, Discover, ACH, EFT, Direct Debit, Giropay, iDEAL, PayPal and NETELLER support include: YellowPay, EPS, Przelewy24, Teleingreso, ELV, Paysafecard, Cashticket, Wallie, and Interac.

More operational flexibility and cost reduction for merchants:  fully outsourced payment service strips out operational costs for the online businesses, with a new back-office user experience, batch processing, automated dispute management, self-integration and the new automated report delivery service.

About Optimal Payments Plc

Trusted by businesses and consumers in over 180 countries to move and manage billions of dollars each year, Optimal Payments Plc is the leading payments company offering a true alternative to banks and card schemes. Merchants use the NETBANX® processing service to simplify how they accept and settle card, direct-from-bank, and cash payments; and the NETELLER® payment account to increase margins, capture new customers and increase their lifetime value. Being independent has allowed the company to support tens-of-thousands of retailers and merchants in many geographies and across multiple industries.

Optimal Payments Plc is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market, with a ticker symbol of OPAY. Subsidiary company NETELLER (UK) Ltd is authorised and regulated as an e-money issuer by the UK'sFinancial Services Authority (FSA).

For more information about Optimal Payments visit http://www.optimalpayments.com or subscribe at http://www.optimalpayments.com/feeds.

For further information contact:

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Optimal Payments Plc    
Andrew Gilchrist, VP Communications
Tel: +44(0)1624-698-713
Email:[email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/optimalpayments

Media Relations
Nick Daines / Sheelagh Connelly, Lumen PR
Tel: +44(0)20-7617-7019
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Optimal Payments Plc