RETAIL DECISIONS ANNOUNCES NEW FRAUD DETECTION SERVICE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN CARD ISSUERS Nedcor Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and ABSA Bank Sign on for New PRISM Neural Network System

Retail Decisions, a leading card-based transactions services business providing fraud prevention to the finance, telecommunications, retail and e-commerce sectors, announces the first ever national credit card fraud detection system for South Africa.

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RETAIL DECISIONS ANNOUNCES NEW FRAUD DETECTION SERVICE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN CARD ISSUERS

Nedcor Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and ABSA Bank Sign on for
New PRISMÒ Neural Network System

PROVIDENCE, RI (January 29, 2002) -- Retail Decisions, a leading card-based transactions services business providing fraud prevention to the finance, telecommunications, retail and e-commerce sectors, announces the first ever national credit card fraud detection system for South Africa. Retail Decisions also announces that ABSA Bank, Nedcor Bank and Standard Bank of South Africa have signed on to use its PRISM system. Deployed at a central location by Retail Decisions, the PRISM software will enable card issuers and acquirers to utilize a single infrastructure and achieve economies of scale, given that fraud is not a competitive issue but rather one on which all financial organizations need to cooperate.

PRISM uses a self-learning neural network fraud detection model using transaction data that will be provided by ABSA, Nedcor, Standard Bank, Diners Club and American Express, to monitor card transactions. The system compares each transaction with historical account patterns and confirmed fraud activity. When the transaction is deemed to be suspicious by the neural network, or if the transaction matches one of the client banks pre-defined fraud detection criteria, it is routed to a fraud analyst at the client bank for review.

The new service complements Retail Decisions existing service, Card Clear, which is used by the leading banks and retailers in South Africa. Card transactions are screened against the Industry Negative Card File (INCF"), South Africas most comprehensive file of lost, stolen and delinquent cards. Retail Decisions will collate and update the INCF for the banks and retailers using information gleaned from the PRISM system. The INCF currently contains more than 2 million records from South African card issuers and over 5 million records from other international card issuers.

Carl Clump, Chief Executive of Retail Decisions, said today:

We have consistently been looking to cross-market our whole range of services into new territories. The adoption of our PRISM service by key players in the South African banking industry is absolutely in line with this strategy.

We are therefore very pleased to collaborate with ABSA, Nedcor Bank and Standard Bank to develop this country-wide solution. This new service uses state-of-the-art fraud detection software, powered by transaction information from three of the leading card issuers to assist them in minimizing payment card losses. We hope to be able to provide this service to additional banks over the coming months."

On December 7, 2001, we stated that the group had been performing in line with expectations and that the outlook for the financial year ended December 31, 2001 remained positive. This position has not changed and we intend to announce our preliminary results for the year just ended in March 2002."

About ReD PRISM

ReD PRISM, a division of Retail Decisions, Inc., is a leading provider of intelligent decision-support solutions for the financial services and e-commerce industries. ReD PRISMs client/server products incorporate innovative pattern-recognition technologies ideally suited for data-intensive, real-time decision applications. The companys products provide predictive fraud detection and case management for e-commerce fraud, credit, debit and retail (private-label) card fraud, as well as merchant fraud and money laundering.

About ABSA
Source: Absa Annual Report 2001

On January 26, 1991, the largest merger in South African banking history brought into being the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa Limited, the largest banking group in Africa, with R50 billion assets. The Group was renamed Absa Group Limited in 1997, and assets have grown to R197 billion.

About Nedcor

Nedcor is a leading South African financial services group. It is the countrys second largest banking group in terms of market capitalisation, with a value of over US$5billion. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nedcor has assets of over US$21billion. The groups activities encompass a wide range of services -from commercial banking, merchant banking and trusts, to related financial services.

About Standard Bank of South Africa

Rooted in Africa and with strategic representation in key sub-Saharan markets, the Standard Bank Group is a regional banking force with a global sweep. Its holding company, Standard Bank Investment Corporation Limited (Stanbic), is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Stanbic is an internationally significant bank with assets of R309 billion and 30, 000 staff spread over five continents. It provides world-class banking products to clients ranging from corporates, parastatal enterprises and governments to individuals needing simple savings facilities

Standard Bank operates through four business units: Retail Banking for personal and small business customers within South Africa; Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank for business banking; Stanbic Africa; and International Operations.