Business Services Industry

GTEL Targets $7.6 Billion Filipino Remittance Market; Bankard and GTEL Sign Agreement to Issue Stored Value Cards for Remittances in the Philippines

Business Wire, Sept 7, 2004

MIAMI -- Bankard, Inc. and GlobeTel Communications Corp. (GTEL) (OTCBB:GTEL) announced today the signing of a definitive Memorandum of Agreement which will allow GTEL to issue and process stored value cards under Bankard.

A major market for GTEL is the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who remit approximately $7.6 billion annually. This stored value program is designed specifically to offer a friendly, low cost, low risk and affordable way for the 7 million Filipinos who send money home.

Anton Romulo, Managing Director-SEA for GTEL, stated, "This agreement with Bankard is a cornerstone for our Card-to-Card remittance initiative in the Philippines. Via Bankard, GTEL now has the flexibility to issue stored value cards that bundle IDD calling cards, insurance policies, education plans, and other virtual products in a simple, convenient format for both the Filipino overseas workers and their loved ones at home. The GTEL Bankard Card will also allow customers to access 5,000 ATMs locally for about $0.25 a transaction.

Joven Reyes, President and CEO of Bankard, said: "GTEL's stored value card is exciting to us as it gives us multiple points of distribution throughout the Americas and soon the other G7 countries. As we integrate our card platform with GTEL, we are confident we can channel a significant portion of the $7.6 billion OFW remittance market through our payment gateways."

Mr. Leigh Coleman, President of GTEL stated that the partnership with Bankard: "is a key part of our US and international marketing plans to position GTEL as a major participant in the $143 billion remittance industry and we look forward to working closely with the team in Bankard to focus on the needs of Filipinos living and working overseas."

About Bankard and RCBC:

Bankard is the only listed credit card company in the Philippine Stock Exchange. Bankard issues and acquires Visa, Mastercard and JCB marks, and has a portfolio of about 280,000 cards.

Bankard is a subsidiary of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), the Philippines' fifth largest private domestic commercial bank with total consolidated assets of about PhP 164 billion (or US$3.0 billion) as of end-December 2001. The Yuchengco Group - one of the country's largest and strongest business conglomerates with interests in banking, insurance, manufacturing, realty development, among others - and The United Financial of Japan hold substantial stakes in the bank at 56% and 25% shares, respectively.

About GlobeTel Communications Corp.

GlobeTel is an IP solutions and applications based company. GlobeTel's goal is to provide strategic advantages to commodity telecommunications based products by taking such products as voice termination, prepaid calling cards, store valued debit cards and IP telephony and giving these products and services unique market advantages through the deployment of unique software and the deployment of IP platforms, including Sanswire's Stratellites and advances in transaction processing. In each of these cases, GlobeTel has developed unique approaches that give the Company market advantages worldwide.

For more information about GlobeTel, visit the Company's website at http://www.globetel.net

Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Placement Act of 1995. The words "forecast", "project", "intend", "expect", "should", "would", and similar expressions and all statements, which are not historical facts, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance (finance or operating) or achievements to differ from future results, performance (financing and operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The above are more fully discussed in the Company's SEC filings.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
 

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