May 13, 2003

Press Release

Banking Production Center (BPC), the leading Russian electronic payments, e-business and self-service solutions provider and systems integrator, opens its new office in Bangkok, Thailand.

The plastic card industry in South-East Asia is experiencing an explosive growth. The advent of EMV as a universal chip card standard urges banks operating in Asia to look for new card processing solutions as most of them currently use legacy systems that do not allow smooth migration to EMV.

BPC's SmartVista solution offers the banks of Thailand and South-East Asia a real opportunity to harness the power of cutting-edge card technologies. Originally designed to support EMV and to run on modern platforms, built in compliance with the Open Systems approach, SmartVista has many features that put it ahead of the competition, supporting multi-application smart cards, banking self-service equipment, secure e-payments and much more.

By opening the Bangkok office following those opened previously in Stockholm, Singapore and Jakarta, BPC continues its international expansion. The decision to start aggressive international promotion of SmartVista Suite was based on the experience of successful large-scale SmartVista deployment and integration in major Russian and CIS banks.

The main responsibility of BPC's new office in Thailand will be to help the corporate headquarters to shape and pursue the right marketing policy for the region, so that BPC could offer banks and financial institutions of South-East Asia the widest possible range of card solutions and services. Along with establishing new business contacts, the new office will implement and maintain BPC's projects in the region and also provide consulting services to help customers apply new technologies in the specific Asian environment.

Banking Production Center is the leading Russian electronic payments and e-business solutions provider and systems integrator with more than 100 customers including major banks, finance and industry groups and corporations. In addition to its Moscow headquarters, BPC now has offices in Stockholm, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Astana (Kazakhstan).

BPC is a privately held company with annual revenue of approximately $20M employing about 90 people, of which 60 in R&D and Support. The Company derives its income from the supply and installation of ATMs and ATM management solutions, and from the implementation of turn-key Card Processing and e-business solutions based on BPC's SmartVista suite of products, including software licenses, consultancy, implementation and support services.

Banking Production Center
CP Tower, level 23
313 Silom Road, Silom
Khet Bangrak
Bangkok 10500
Thailand
Phone: + 66 2231 8013
Fax:     + 66 2231 8121