Scotiabank Chooses Arcot to Make Online Shopping Safer for Canadians

Arcot Systems, a leading provider of solutions for securing e-business, today announced that Scotiabank has selected Arcot TransFort to provide the Verified by Visa payment authentication program -- giving Scotiabank cardholders the power to verify and protect their identities when shopping online.

The Verified by Visa program is designed to bring the same level of security to the virtual world as is available in the physical world by confirming to the participating e-merchant that the online buyer is the actual cardholder. The program combines a complete business framework with technological innovations that protect Internet-based payments on a global scale and vastly improve the payment service. Scotiabank customers may enroll in the program immediately at www.scotiabank.com/activatevbv.

The service is available through a hosted service based on the Arcot TransFort software. Arcot TransFort was the first solution to be named compliant with the 3-D Secure Interoperability protocol by the Visa Compliance Testing Facility, and was chosen by MasterCard to help develop the MasterCard SecureCode program. Arcot TransFort currently supports over 9,000 Issuers worldwide and over 10,000 merchants, and is the leading product to offer both a card issuer and merchant solution.

"Scotiabank is on the forefront on the Canadian market and worked closely with Visa and Arcot in the development of the program -- we are proud that such a leader chose the TransFort solution," said Ram Varadarajan, President and CEO, Arcot Systems. "With over three years of proven deployment at major financial institutions, card issuers the world over trust Arcot TransFort to deliver a reliable, industry-proven and leading-edge solution."

About Arcot

Arcot Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of convenient and secure e-payment and identity solutions for financial services, pharmaceuticals and security-conscious enterprise environments. Only Arcot provides cost-effective, scalable software solutions based on the ArcotID™ Software Smart Card for strong authentication of users and transactions. Arcot solutions meet the business need for strong transactional security while providing the customer a user-friendly experience. Over 17,000 customers use Arcot solutions to protect their customers' privacy and dramatically reduce fraud without sacrificing convenience. For more information, please visit www.arcot.com.

Contact: Pam Kline Smith Company: Arcot Systems Voice: 408-969-6170 Email: pam@arcot.com