Am-Beo Announces Contract with BFS Finance, Formerly Bertelsmann Financial Services; Agreement Enables BFS to Expand Offerings From Payments to Include Rating and Billing Services

Business Wire, Jan 27, 2003

Business Editors

GALWAY, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2003

Am-Beo, a global provider of rating and revenue settlement solutions, today announced a significant agreement with BFS Finance, formerly known as Bertelsmann Financial Services. BFS Finance, currently offering payment services to Internet retailers and portals, will now use Am-Beo's rate-rec(TM) to expand their services. New services will include rating, billing and revenue settlement. This agreement highlights Am-Beo's continued success in the financial services market for high-volume finance and eBusiness transaction processing.

BFS Finance is part of Arvato Services, a Bertelsmann company. With some 55 subsidiaries worldwide, Arvato AG (head office in Gutersloh, Germany) is one of the biggest internationally networked media service providers. The role of the Arvato Services is to ensure a quick and direct flow of information, goods and finance, in the area of business-to-business and business-to-consumer. Their emphasis is on meeting customer requirements and the demands of millions of consumers. BFS Finance provides financial management solutions to ISPs and E-commerce organisations managing approximately 100 million transactions each year, supporting 18 different currencies with multiple payment methods.

"With the selection of rate-rec, we can now offer our clients a complete, end-to-end service, adding advanced rating and billing to our existing portfolio of payment processing, credit & debit management and customer care," said Matthias Mierisch, Managing Director of BFS Finance. "The Am-Beo software also gives us the flexibility required to replace our clients' existing charging models and to introduce advanced charging models for our clients' next-generation services."

"This agreement represents another significant step for Am-Beo," said John Brady, Am-Beo's chief executive officer. "BFS Finance is a world-class provider of financial services and this contract demonstrates Am-Beo's capacity to manage the largest providers with the most advanced services in the market. Am-Beo continues to bring key solutions to major service operators around the globe."

Rate-rec(TM) will be fully integrated with the existing BFS Finance business infrastructure.

About Am-Beo

Based in Galway, Ireland, and with offices in France, Spain and the United States, Am-Beo is a global provider of rapidly deployed, real-time rating and settlement solutions for the communications and financial services industry. Am-Beo's flagship product, rate-rec(TM), provides rating and revenue settlement for voice, data, content and other usage-based services. Am-Beo also provides Roam Manager(TM) for inter-carrier roaming agreements and settlements. Tornado Insider recently recognized the company as one of the Top-10 emerging companies in Europe. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.am-beo.com.