First Data and Entrust Technologies Form New Integrated Secure Payment Company for B2B E

First Data and Entrust Technologies Form New Integrated Secure Payment Company for B2B E-Markets

PaymentWave to Power B2B Exchanges

Atlanta, GA & Plano, TX - May 23, 2000 - First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) and Entrust Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTU) today announced the formation of a new company, PaymentWave, to focus on delivering a payment platform and related products for business-to-business (B2B) exchanges to facilitate safe, secure, authenticated payments for businesses buying and selling through e-markets.

First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment services, and Entrust Technologies, the global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business relationships, each have invested an initial $10 million in cash and committed employees to start this joint venture, which will make it easy, safe and cost-effective for businesses to make payments over the Internet.

The jointly owned company is focused on capitalizing on the explosive growth of e-business and, in particular, the rapid growth of B2B Internet exchanges. Gartner Group estimates that $7.3 trillion will be transacted in B2B electronic commerce over the Internet by 2004; according to Net Market Makers, there are approximately 750 B2B exchanges operating today, up from just 50 one year ago.

PaymentWave is positioned to quickly deliver to B2B exchanges a payments platform supporting a comprehensive suite of payment and security products. Leveraging the core capabilities of First Data, which moves $1 trillion annually, the PaymentWave solution will accept, process and settle all electronic payment types, including credit, private label and purchase cards, as well as domestic and international Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT), and also will support escrow and payment scheduling services. These payment products will be complemented by Entrust's market-leading Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security and digital certificate offerings, as well as its registration and verification services to ensure accountability for all B2B transactions. PaymentWave customers also will benefit from Entrust's transaction confidentiality services to ensure competing buyers or sellers are not able to ascertain competitive demand levels, pricing, and unique transaction terms and conditions.

Safe, Secure Payments
In today's B2B environment, buyers and sellers meet online, but then must go offline to complete the transaction. Through PaymentWave, buyers, sellers and exchanges will benefit from the convenience, flexibility and risk reduction afforded by a secure and streamlined online payment environment. With the combined strengths of First Data and Entrust, B2B exchanges can further decrease the costs of doing business for buyers and sellers as a result of increased process automation.

"The expertise, payment network and global scope of First Data, combined with the proven scalability of Entrust security, is unprecedented in the B2B payments arena," said Ric Duques, chairman and chief executive officer for First Data Corp. "B2B is an untapped payments opportunity for First Data. Our intention is to address security issues, deliver bottom-line savings, and maximize speed, efficiency and convenience for all parties. With the infrastructure PaymentWave is establishing, businesses will be able to buy and sell with confidence on the Internet."

First Data and Entrust also bring the capabilities of their financial institution clients to buyers and sellers participating in B2B e-markets.

"As B2B e-commerce continues its explosive growth, Entrust and First Data will continue to make sure that end-to-end transactions - from authentication of the parties right through to payment processing - will be done safely, easily and efficiently over the Internet," said John Ryan, president and CEO of Entrust Technologies. "Drawing on Entrust's leadership in providing trusted e-business infrastructures and the market leadership and breadth of capabilities of First Data, PaymentWave will give customers the peace of mind that comes with the proven resources of its parent companies."

Having pioneered public key infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificates, the platform for trusted electronic communications in B2B and B2C marketplaces, Entrust is a leader in delivering solutions and services that enable trusted e-business relationships.

B2B e-markets are e-business sites on the Internet that allow large communities of buyers and sellers to collaborate and exchange goods and services. These e-markets have a number of unique characteristics in that purchasing schemes vary across industries, and purchasers and payers are often separate entities.

Through PaymentWave, First Data and Entrust will help to automate and simplify the payment process while also reducing risks as organizations interact, buy and sell from each other online.

PaymentWave will integrate its solution with technology providers that enable Internet e-markets, such as procurement software providers, exchange infrastructure, hardware and other vendors.

Initially, both First Data and Entrust will commit employees to PaymentWave from their existing companies to focus on building the new organization and to launching initial sales and marketing efforts.