Oslo 17.01.2001

Europay Norge has today entered into a strategic co-operation agreement with EDB Business Partner which currently relates to the purchase of software and computer operating services for Europay Norge's card activities. The agreement has a potential value of NOK 100 million over a five-year period.

The agreement represents an extension and expansion of the business relationship between the parties, and serves to confirm that Europay Norge has chosen EDB Business Partner as a co-operation partner for certain areas of activity. EDB Fellesdata will be responsible for providing systems to be used by Europay Norge for processing card transactions, whilst computer operating services will be provided by EDB Teamco.


Strategic co-operation
"Europay is a leading player for card-based financial services. In order to meet international competition and further develop our focus on e-business, we want to have a business partner that can offer sound expertise in Norwegian and Nordic banking and finance and that has the capacity to develop up-to-date e-solutions. The choice of EDB Business Partner as one of our strategic partners will make it possible for us to realise a number of our ambitions", comments Ketil Fridheim, Deputy Managing Director of Europay Norge.

Europay Norge is the largest card company in Norway, and handled card transactions for Eurocard and MasterCard totalling NOK 16.8 billion in 2000. Over recent years Europay has seen strong growth in its market share both in Norway and internationally, especially in retail sector card transactions.

"Europay is a major player both in Norway and internationally. EDB Business Partner has enjoyed close co-operation with Europay Norge over a number of years, and the company's decision to enter into a long-term strategic co-operation with us represents a major element in our focus on developing financial services for payment systems", comments Bjørn Trondsen, Chief Executive Officer of EDB Business Partner.

Contact names:

Ketil Fridheim,
Deputy Managing Director,
Europay Norge,
Tel. + 47 98 21 11 01

Bjørn Trondsen,
Chief Executive Officer,
EDB Business Partner,
Tel. + 47 22 94 40 30,
+ 47 91 78 56 17

Ole Trasti,
Managing Director,
EDB Fellesdata,
Tel. + 47 22 52 82 60,
+ 47 90 08 91 00