Wing Hang Bank Launches E-Commerce Services on Schedule, Signs Five Year Contract with FEDS; First Ecom's First Hong Kong Enabled Bank Opens Door for E-Merchant Applications

Business Wire, Sept 14, 2000

Business/High-Tech Editors

HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2000

First Ecom.com Inc. (Nasdaq:FECC) (BSX: FECC, FECC BH), a global provider of electronic payment processing solutions, and Wing Hang Bank today announced the launch of Wing Hang Bank's e-commerce initiative following the successful completion of a live pilot run of their systems with selected merchants.

Wing Hang Bank's live merchants who are presently benefiting from First Ecom's payment processing solution include E-finet.com (www.e-finet.com, a division of CN-Markets), E-Plaza (www.eplaza.com.hk), Universal Electronics (www.computershop.com.hk), Wing Hang Insurance Agency Ltd (www.whbhk.com), China Electronics Information Technology (www.hksoftware.com), and KingUp Ltd. In addition, Wing Hang plans to take another ten or so merchants live over the next two weeks and will be accepting applications for new online merchant accounts.

Following outsourcing arrangements announced between First Ecom and Wing Hang during May, Wing Hang has signed a five-year Ecommerce Transaction Processing Agreement with First Ecommerce Data Services Ltd. (FEDS) whereby Wing Hang will outsource its electronic payment processing to FEDS. Wing Hang is currently utilizing the FEDS processing solution for all credit card transactions conducted on their e-merchants' Web sites.

"We are pleased that Wing Hang has officially launched its e-commerce initiative and that First Ecom's e-payment solutions are now available to all of Wing Hang's existing and future online merchants," said Harold Hutton, president and CEO of First Ecom. "First Ecom's e-payment solutions provide Wing Hang and their merchants with high-level security utilizing 128-bit SSL and OpenPGP encryption allowing them to perform secure, reliable, real-time authorization for Internet credit card purchases."

"We are pleased to have completed the live pilot phase," said Patrick Fung, Chairman and Chief Executive of Wing Hang Bank. "We stated in May (www.whbhk.com/eng/cprofile/index.html) that we would launch this service with First Ecom during the third quarter. We are delighted to do so on schedule. We have made significant progress in e-commerce and are currently accepting merchant applications for online accounts. In fact, we foresee e-commerce transactions as being a valuable means of revenue and in the coming year are expecting our e-commerce business to grow to 10% of our overall transaction volume."

About Wing Hang Bank

Founded in 1937, Wing Hang Bank is now one of the leading financial institutions in Hong Kong offering a diverse range of banking services to meet the needs of its customers. To date, the Bank has a network of over 40 branches in Hong Kong, Macau and China with total assets of over HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion). The Bank strives to become "The Preferred Bank" for its customers and commits to continually improving its service quality. For more information, visit: http://www.whbhk.com.

About First Ecom

As a global provider of electronic payment processing, First Ecom provides secure, easy-to-implement and low-cost online payment processing services to banks and their merchants worldwide. Through strategic partnerships with banks, ISPs, e-commerce product suppliers, system integrators and storefront solution providers, First Ecom will process credit card transactions made over the Internet in multiple currencies, either domestically or offshore in a tax-neutral jurisdiction.

For more information, visit www.firstecom.com or contact First Ecom at (852) 2801-5181 or by e-mail at info@firstecom.com.

About First Ecommerce Data Services Limited (FEDS)

A joint venture between First Ecom.com Inc. and the Bank of Bermuda, FEDS is an independent third party processor. FEDS will work with any financial institution anywhere in the world to provide the institution and its merchants with a multi-currency, advanced electronic payment processing solution. The FEDS Processing Solution features online and batch transactions processing for credit and debit cards as well as authorization, electronic data transmission for settlement and full transaction reporting.

For more information, visit www.fedsinternational.com or contact FEDS at (441) 296-FEDS (3337).

Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's SEC filings, which contain additional discussion about those factors which could cause actual results to differ from management's expectations.