NEOVIA Financial Plc AGM Statement

Thursday 29 April 2010 – At the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) of NEOVIA Financial Plc ("NEOVIA" or the “Company”) (NEO.L), the leading alternative payments business, being held later today in the Isle of Man, Chairman, Dale Johnson will make the following statement: 

"The Company has seen a positive start to 2010 building on the progress the business made during 2009.  Our efforts to drive efficiencies from the business are beginning to bear fruit as our business transformation programme builds momentum.  

We are continuing to win significant new contracts in both our NETBANX straight-through processing business and our stored value business which comprises the NETELLER e-wallet and Net+ cards.

We will complete the transition to our new technology platform in the coming few weeks. The Group is well placed to pursue its growth strategy through a combination of organic development around existing businesses and appropriate acquisition opportunities.

The business is performing in line with current market expectations.  As we stated in the annual report, market conditions continue to be challenging but we remain confident that we are well positioned to take advantage of improved trading activity. 

On behalf of the Board, I would like to sincerely thank our two non-executive directors, Don Lindsay and John Webster, who indicated earlier this year their intent to step down from the board at the conclusion of today’s AGM. Don and John have been non-executive directors since the Company’s admission to AIM in April 2004 and have served the Company with outstanding commitment, loyalty and professionalism throughout NEOVIA’s life as a public company.  The process to find suitable new non-executive directors as well as a new Chief Financial Officer is well underway and we expect to make formal announcements regarding such appointments in the near future.

The Board has increased optimism about the outlook for NEOVIA in 2010 based on the Company’s renewed strategy for growth, noting the continuing short term challenges for our customers from both the uncertain economic environment and constantly evolving regulatory developments. I look forward to updating shareholders on the Group's progress at our half year results.”

NEOVIA Upgrades and Simplifies Merchant Services with New Card Acquiring Bureau

Global payments processing now available through one simple integration

Monday 26 April 2010 – NEOVIA Financial Plc (LSE: NEO), the leading alternative payments business, has made available a significant upgrade to its Merchant Services business that forms part of its NEOVIA Payment Network™. With its recently introduced new bureau service, merchants can directly accept and settle card payments through NEOVIA’s NETBANX service without the complexity and cost of managing an additional bank direct acquiring relationship. 

The new service provides focused solutions for medium and large businesses including:
• New MasterCard® and VISA® acquiring and processing without the need for managing a direct bank relationship or Merchant Account;
• High capacity, fault tolerant processing platform with second physical data-centre location with optional disaster recovery;
• Multi-channel Cardholder-Not-Present (CNP) service, including Web, IVR and call centre/MOTO;
• Fully PCI DSS Level 1 compliant and certified service;
• Additional payment support for global processing of American Express, PayPal, NETELLER, Ukash, and direct-from-bank payments such as iDEAL, Giropay, and Direct Debit;
• Multicurrency processing and settlement support with multi-lingual checkout pages;
• A single integration to all payment types; and
• Pricing that is highly competitive with direct bank processing.

Without this new service, merchants typically have to manage relationships with both a Payment Service Provider (PSP) and bank, including the need to obtain a separate Merchant Account, to accept, process and settle card transactions. This process is both difficult and time-consuming. By working with a Merchant Services provider such as NEOVIA, a merchant can get an easy-to-manage, one-stop payments processing service with competitive pricing.

Dan Starr, Chief Marketing Officer at NEOVIA Financial, said: “With NEOVIA’s upgraded merchant services bureau, companies in a wide range of industries can benefit from our best-in-class pricing, simple interface and comprehensive back-office reporting. This service also provides direct marketing channels which help merchants to reach out to customers and increase their revenue.”

The NEOVIA Payment Network™ simplifies payments for businesses improving customer experience, margins and lifetime value. It includes the international NETBANX® payments processing service for merchants, and member and card services through the NETELLER® payment account. NETBANX allows merchants to accept and settle card and non-card payments through multiple channels including online, contact centres, mail order and via automated phone systems. Via NETELLER merchants can offer their loyal customers a branded payment account that allows instant and direct settlement that avoids the complexities and costs of traditional card schemes; the embedded multi-award-wining Net+® card allows consumers to spend at over 30 million MasterCard® locations worldwide.

For further information on the newly launched bureau merchant service, visit www.netbanx.com or see our online demonstration.