CEY Certegy

Certegy to Provide Check Authorization and Collection Services to BI-LO and Bruno's Food Retail Chains ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Certegy Inc. (NYSE:CEY), a leading global payment services provider, today announced that it has signed an agreement to provide its Pathways(R) check authorization and collection services to BI-LO and Bruno's food retail chains. BI-LO and Bruno's are two of the leading grocery store chains in the southeastern United States, with a combined store count of over 400 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. Ahold USA has announced it is selling both chains to Lone Star Funds, a leading U.S. private investment company based in Dallas, Texas that manages more than $13 billion in assets and investments in North America, Europe and Asia. With the Pathways(R) service, Certegy provides up-front check authorization while the retailer assumes the risk for fraudulent checks. Certegy's risk management system, combined with its check recovery service, makes the payment process more efficient by significantly reducing risk at the time of payment and collecting checks returned for insufficient funds, thereby lowering retailers' overall check expense. "With strong heritages of outstanding customer service, both BI-LO and Bruno's place a premium on offering their customers a pleasant shopping experience," said Jeff Carbiener, executive vice president and group executive of Certegy Check Services. "Our unique artificial intelligence modeling and superior risk management technology enables retailers like BI-LO and Bruno's to reduce fraud and control check expense while maintaining superior customer service levels and consumer satisfaction." "As an industry leader, Certegy is the ideal check risk management provider by making the purchase easier for customers who prefer to pay by check, in addition to reducing our cost of check acceptance," stated John Symons, BI-LO Executive Vice President of Store Operations. About Certegy Inc. Certegy (NYSE:CEY) provides credit and debit processing, check risk management and check cashing services, merchant processing and e-banking services to over 6,500 financial institutions, 117,000 retailers and 100 million consumers worldwide. Headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, Certegy maintains a strong global presence with operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Chile, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Caribbean. As a leading payment services provider, Certegy offers a comprehensive range of transaction processing services, check risk management solutions and integrated customer support programs that facilitate the exchange of business and consumer payments. Certegy generated over $1.0 billion in revenue in 2004. For more information on Certegy, please visit http://www.certegy.com/ . About BI-LO and Bruno's BI-LO and Bruno's are two of the leading food retail chains in the southeastern United States, with a combined store count of over 400 supermarkets and combined 2003 net sales of approximately EUR 4.7 billion. Forward-Looking Statement The statements in this release may include forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections about Certegy and our industry. They are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Certegy's control that may cause actual results to differ significantly from what is expressed in those statements. Factors that could, either individually or in the aggregate, affect our performance are described in detail in the section entitled "Certain Factors Affecting Forward-Looking Statements" in our 2003 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 17, 2004, with the SEC. DATASOURCE: Certegy Inc. CONTACT: Mary Waggoner, SVP - Investor Relations of Certegy Inc., +1-678-867-8004 Web site: http://www.certegy.com/

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