PayPoint extends its bill payment service on the Romanian market by signing partnerships with Allianz Tiriac, ENEL, E.ON Gaz Romania and E.ON Moldova Furnizare. In the same time, the company diversify its electronic recharge service, extending the contract with UPC for Focus Sat digital tv channel and the contract with Zapp for prepaid new services.

From now on, the PayPoint terminals allow bill payment in cash for premiums written at Allianz Tiriac. Allianz Tiriac Asigurari operates on all the important segments of insurances – car, household goods, liability, life, health. Any type of policy concluded with Allianz Tiriac may be paid through  PayPoint system by scanning the bar code bills issued by the insurance company.

The electricity provided by ENEL Energie in Dobrogea and Banat could be paid in every PayPoint branded location. Thus, the consumers of ENEL Energie from Timis, Hunedoara, Arad, Caras-Severin, Constanta, Tulcea, Calarasi and Ialomita counties could use the PayPoint system to pay the bills issued by the electricity supplier.

Regarding the same bill payment service, PayPoint has concluded partnerships with E.ON Moldova Furnizare and E.ON Gaz Romania. The service is directed to the consumers of the electricity provider from Bacau, Botosani, Iasi, Neamt, Suceava and Vaslui counties, as well as the consumers of the natural gas supplier.

In the same time, PayPoint extends the electronic recharge service by signing a partnership with Focus Sat, digital tv sattelite provider, member of the UPC Group. Thus, the clients of Focus Sat have the possibility to recharge the vouchers for the extension of the desired tv pachage. The PayPoint terminals could provide electronic code vouchers to be handled to the users of DTH (Direct-to-Home) prepaid services.

The PayPoint network allows from now on electronic recharge for Zapp prepaid services. Zapp prepaid services, called NoPay, have been launched at the beginning of December, bringing on the market a new category of services by using CDMA technology on 450 MHz frequency.

“We are glad to be able to extend our bill payment service for Romanian consumers, after just few months of activity on the local market. The receptiveness of our partners – large local utilities and services providers -  confirms to us that the PayPoint system  in Romania is a viable solution, which benefits every party involved in the business. Further confirmation is given by the fact that the PayPoint service is also well received by both consumers and retailers.” Mugur Dogariu, Managing Director of Pay Store (PayPoint’s Romanian subsidiary), has declared.

PayPoint is the first multi client, purpose-built network of its kind to be active in Romania.  It facilitates the payment in the same retail point of household bills issued by those utilities and services providers PayPoint has a contract with. In present, the PayPoint branded terminals network has national coverage, being located in proximity stores, where the consumers may pay their household bills while purchasing consumer goods. The main assets of PayPoint system consists in a significant time saving in the household bill payment process, without any additional cost for the end-users. All transactions are processed on the PayPoint platform in UK, operational for over 12 years. The company aims to extend its branded network at least by 800 new terminals until March 2009.

Besides the electronic payment of  household bills services, Pay Store will continue to offer complete electronic mobile prepaid SIM card recharging services for all the mobile networks (Cosmote, Orange, Vodafone and Zapp), and also electronic recharging services to the operators of phone cards with internet and international access such as EasyComm, UPC, Nobel and Worldtelecom (Number One).

Notes to Editors

PayPoint is the leading cash and internet payments company in the UK and Ireland.  It handles in excess of £8 billion from over 515 million transactions annually for 6,000 clients and merchants. The company operates with several payment networks:

• The PayPoint retail network numbers over 20,750 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, Costcutter, Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Londis, Somerfield and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Terminals handle gas and electricity meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for all of the leading utilities, telecommunications suppliers and many consumer service companies.

• Additional multiple retailer connections via retailers’ electronic till systems in the UK, including BP and Superdrug, for mobile top-ups and selected payments from the PayPoint range;

• The PayPoint ATM network has 2,150 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, also typically in convenience stores;

• PayPoint.net provides secure credit and debit card payments for over 5,100 web merchants linking into all the major UK acquiring banks;

• PayPoint International, which operates bill payment and top-up services in Ireland and Romania. PayStore in Romania now has 4,700 terminal outlets including 1,200 PayPoint branded sites for the new bill payment service.

PayPoint plc floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004.