Press Release

Year 2008 / Wednesday July 23, 9:30 am ET

Rahaxi Processing Enters Agreement With Natixis Paiements to Process China Unionpay Transactions

Over 1.5 billion China Unionpay (CUP) cards in circulation. Around 700 thousand Chinese visitors to France last year

HELSINKI, Finland, July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FreeStar Technology Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: FSRT - News), an international card payments processor and technology company, today announced that its Finnish-based, wholly-owned subsidiary, Rahaxi Processing Oy has entered into an agreement with Natixis Paiements (KN.PA) to become the card processor of choice for China Unionpay (CUP) transactions.

Rahaxi Processing Oy platform provides an on-line real-time local connection point for Acquiring Banks onto the China Unionpay network benefiting from China's growing prosperity. China Unionpay (CUP) is one of the world's largest payment schemes, whose members issued millions of debit/credit cards to enable Chinese travellers to make purchase or cash withdrawal when travelling in Europe. There are over 1.5 billion CUP cards in circulation and around 700 thousand Chinese people visited France last year.

Natixis Paiements have chosen the Rahaxi Managed Network option, which allows the merchant an automated secure key exchange protocol for message and PIN encryption. The Rahaxi Managed Network performs fraud checks and rejects cards with invalid or expired details, or cards involved in suspicious activity. A significant investment in engineering and resources, Rahaxi Processing has put together a system that is extremely flexible and exposes a reliable and comprehensive interface to the acquiring community. This lowers their barrier of entry to accept CUP cardholders at their merchant locations and provides a low-cost solution with fast time to market to guarantee an excellent return on investment.

Managing Director of Rahaxi Processing Oy, Dr. Jose Enrique Perez said, "When you factor in that Rahaxi is the only vendor in Finland having the highest security standards for Visa and MasterCard coupled with providing transactions for China Unionpay, you can see that we are aggressively moving our business plan forward to take advantage of market opportunities."

Rahaxi Chairman Paul Egan said, "We have been committed to growing our revenue through strategic partnerships and with more than 1.5 billion CUP cards in circulation, we look forward to increased revenue through transaction processing in the years ahead. This is clear evidence of Rahaxi spreading its wings across Europe with secure and trusted platform leaders in EMV and PCI, which is attracting new card channels and large banking institutions."

About China UnionPay

Based in Shanghai, China UnionPay, also known as UnionPay, or by its abbreviation, CUP, is the only credit card organization in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 2002, China UnionPay is an association for China's banking card industry. It is the only interbank network in China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, linking the ATMs of fourteen major banks and many smaller banks throughout mainland China. CUP has been established as the predominant domestic card acceptance brand in the People's Republic of China, and is seeking to expand its acceptance and cash access network internationally. More than 1.2 Billion CUP cards are in circulation. As the only national card brand in China, the world's fastest growing economy with a population of more than 1.3 billion, CUP is anticipating exponential growth in demand for its card services both at home and abroad. CUP has embarked on aggressive expansion plans to develop a worldwide acceptance network. The need for a reliable, secure and dynamic networking solution across a unified multi-country platform is of paramount importance.
http://en.chinaunionpay.com.

About Natixis Paiements

Natixis Paiements is a partnership between two French cooperative banking groups, Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, to offer a single entity for their respective corporate banking services. Natixis is a key player in the banking sector in France and Europe, offering services centered around five core businesses: corporate and investment banking, asset management, private equity and private banking, services and receivables management. Natixis operates in 68 countries with over 120 branches worldwide, and supports the development of large businesses, SMEs and institutions. It generates net banking income of euro 7,322 million and net income (Group share) of euro 2,158 million.
http://www.natixis.fr

Source: FreeStar Technology Corporation