Elavon Wins Best Merchant Acquiring Initiative

Elavon, a leading global payments provider and wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), was awarded Best Merchant Acquiring Initiative for its International Payment Processing technology at the 2012 Cards & Payments Awards held in London this week. Elavon competed for the award along with other finalists: Barclaycard, Cashflows, HSBC Merchant Services and WorldPay.

Elavon’s technology enhancements and investments in 2011 provided enhanced services to customers. Elavon was the first acquirer to design and create a single, cross-border, multi-lingual/currency IT platform to support businesses with cross-border requirements. This International Processing Platform (IPP), a competitive differentiator, provides streamlined processing with single funding/statement capabilities and gives the company a significant cost advantage through its scale and capacity.

IPP supports more than 100 currencies, cross-border acquiring and multi-currency processing, and provides businesses with value-added services (Dynamic Currency Conversion and Electronic Gift cards, through which additional income can be earned) and global reporting capabilities that create operational and financial efficiencies. IPP was hailed as the best in Europe in 2011 by independent consultants First Annapolis. The company also won the accolade of Acquirer of the Year in June 2011*

Launched in 2008, IPP additional investments in 2010 and 2011 have expanded the platform’s scalability to include a roll out in Norway, Brazil and Mexico.

"Elavon is committed to investing in our people, products and technology to drive growth for our customers and partners, and our International Processing Platform is a shining example of how we can provide scalable solutions that deliver innovative efficiencies,” commented Simon Haslam, President International Markets at Elavon. "We are pleased to receive this award and the industry accolades for technology investment that it acknowledges.”

*Awarded by Cards & Payments Europe operated by VRL's leading publications Cards International and Electronic Payments International.

About Elavon (www.elavon.com): Elavon is wholly owned by U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and provides end-to-end payment processing solutions and services to more than one million merchants in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Elavon markets solutions including credit and debit card processing, electronic gift cards, dynamic currency conversion, multi-currency support, and cross-border acquiring through multiple alliance channels including financial institutions, trade associations, third party sales agents; as well through direct sales. Elavon’s suite of solutions is tailored to meet the needs of merchants in specialised markets such as retail, hospitality/T&E, health care, education and the public sector.

About Cards & Payments Europe: Cards & Payments Europe is a European Conference, running for its 24th year in 2011. It has its foundations in VRL's leading publications Cards International and Electronic Payments International.