HONG KONG, September 15 /PRNewswire/ --     Equens and VocaLink have extended their bilateral agreement to include
SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) payment processing, in addition to the SEPA Credit
Transfer (SCT) service already offered. Today at Sibos - the global event for
the financial sector - both companies signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) on this
matter. The interoperability agreement helps to create a more competitive
payments market as banks will be able to choose which processor they want to
use for SDDs, as well as SCTs. It is the intention to go-live with the
extended interconnection with the start of SDD on 2 November 2009.

Michel Stuijt, General Manager Marketing & Sales at Equens, says:
"Extending our SCT interoperability agreement with VocaLink to include SDD
capabilities was a logical next step for us. This interoperability will
enable customers of both Equens and VocaLink to fully benefit from SEPA by
providing a fast and low-risk way of achieving reach within the Eurozone for
SDD. For SCTs Equens has full reach already since 28 January 2008. Currently
we already have bilateral links for SCT with DIAS (Greece), Iberpay (Spain),
ICBPI/Banca d'Italia (Italy), OeNB (Austria) and VocaLink (UK) and we strive
to further expand the number of SCT and SDD links in the near future."

Martin Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer at VocaLink, adds: "The
interoperability agreement will enable our customers to expand their payments
network in Europe. Through this partnership, we are able to ensure compliance
at a reduced cost whilst offering functionally rich services such as payments
capture, validation, mandate management and exceptions management to make
SEPA a real success."

This interoperability agreement is based on Interoperability Framework
version 4.1 of the European Automated Clearing House Association (EACHA).
Version 4.1 elaborates on the improved process for exchanging and sharing of
reach. It also provides details on all the interoperability provisions for
SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) messages for both Core and Business-to-Business
(B2B).

Note for the editorial staff

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 processing volume of 8.9 billion payments and 3.2 billion POS and ATM
transactions, Equens has a market share of more than 12.5% within Europe.
Equens has offices in four countries - the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and
Finland - and provides pan-European market coverage through services to
clients in eight European countries.

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

About VocaLink

VocaLink is a specialist provider of payments services to banks, their
corporate customers and Government departments. It processes domestic and
international automated payments and provides ATM switching solutions. On a
peak day, the VocaLink automated payment platform processes over 90 million
transactions and over half a billion in a month. Its switching platform
connects the world's busiest ATM network of over 60,000 ATMs. Its Real-Time
Payments platform provides the central infrastructure for the UK Faster
Payments service. VocaLink is working with BGC (Bankgirocentralen) to provide
outsourced processing for the majority of Sweden's domestic payments.