VIENNA, Austria, September 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Joint Initiative to Create a European Solution

Today, at SIBOS, ICBPI Group (Italy), Isabel (Belgium) and Equens (the
Netherlands) announced that they will be joining forces in e-invoicing. The
main goal of the founding partners - ICBPI and Equens - for this
international initiative is to establish an open, multi-party, cross-border
European e-invoicing network. The network must gain practical experience and
actively contribute to the development of a standardised European e-invoicing
product with maximum customer reach. For this purpose, ICBPI and Equens will
set up one of the first cross-border pilots for e-invoicing networks within
Europe. Service provider Isabel will be the first participant in this pilot.

ICBPI Group and Equens will cooperate to bridge local solutions, enabling
banks, corporates and service providers to extend their reach in Europe.
Equens will bridge domestic service providers in order to create European
coverage in the distribution of e-invoicing. Isabel will contribute its
e-invoicing knowledge and experience. Other parties are invited to join this
initiative in order to expand the e-invoicing community as soon as possible.

The European Commission aims to establish a mature e-invoicing framework
by 2010 at the latest. E-invoicing is a field that potentially offers
excellent opportunities. Over 90 percent of all invoicing worldwide is still
performed on paper. This usually involves an extremely inefficient process of
printing, distributing, scanning and archiving paper and re-entering data.
There are now hundreds of initiatives in place for electronic invoicing on a
national level. A specific, joint and international initiative is therefore
an important next step.

According to Equens, invoicing should be as easy as paying. Michael
Steinbach, Chairman of Equens' Board of Directors: "We strongly believe that
staying ahead in the European payment-processing market requires looking
beyond the payments discipline as such. It requires in-depth knowledge of the
future needs of banks and their customers, of technology and of
applications."

"As a market leader in payments and electronic invoicing services in
Italy, we are focused on providing the best services in the Customer-to-Bank
area," says Giuseppe Capponcelli, Managing Director of ICBPI Group. "This
cross-border joint initiative on e-invoicing will allow us to be a first
mover in the European scenario and to enhance our corporate banking services.
The first International e-invoicing pilot is a win-win initiative that allows
the founding partners to extend their reachability to other important trade
markets, as well as enabling ICBPI to offer competitive advantages to banks
and more benefits to their corporate customers."

As one of the leading providers of e-invoicing and electronic banking
services in Belgium, Isabel is the first participant in this European
e-invoicing initiative. Isabel will draw on its technical and business
expertise in the SME market to contribute to the success of this e-invoicing
pilot project. "This pilot project is a great opportunity to enhance our
experience in electronic invoicing and to promote interoperability at
European level," says Luc Van Hecke, International Sales Manager of Isabel
S.A.

Editorial note

About Equens

Equens SE is the first truly pan-European, full-service payment
processor. As one of the largest and most innovative payment processors in
Europe, Equens is leading the market for future-proof payments and card
processing solutions. Thanks to an extensive and competitive service
portfolio and a flexible, customer-orientated approach, the company
seamlessly meets the requirements of the European payments market. With an
annual volume of 7.3 billion payments and 2.1 billion POS and ATM
transactions, Equens has a market share of more than 15% within the euro
zone. By continuously pursuing further growth and translating the achieved
synergy benefits and economies of scale into advantages for the customer, the
company contributes to the efficiency of European payments.

For additional information, please visit http://www.equens.com

About ICBPI

The ICBPI Group is made up of highly specialised companies focusing on 
the design, planning and management of services for banks, financial 
institutions and insurance companies. ICBPI S.p.A. is specialised in 
traditional and innovative payment services, as well as financial and 
administrative services offered according to a BPO model. ICBPI also offers 
innovative and efficient solutions for the outsourced management of domestic 
and international payment systems (SEPA-compliant) for banks, Public 
Administrations and other companies. Key Client is focused on electronic 
payment systems (Cards, POS and ATM) and with HelpPhone on customer care 
services through a contact center. Oasi is a market leader in services such 
as managed systems, financial transaction tracking, reporting to the 
Central Bank, anti-money laundering and regulation compliance, retirement 
insurance fund management and data security.

For additional information, please visit http://www.icbpi.it

About Isabel

Isabel is a professional software developer and service provider
specialising in bank automation and electronic invoicing. Isabel's solutions
are used by many financial institutions and associations all over Europe. 30
banks and 110,000 companies in Belgium are using Isabel online services. The
Zoomit application developed by Isabel is integrated with the Internet
banking solutions of the most important banks. It enables millions of
consumers and SMEs to take advantage of e-invoicing technology. Isabel was
founded in 1995 and has 130 employees.

For more information, please visit http://www.isabel.eu