Eckoh Technologies Regulatory News (ECK)

Eckoh plc

("Eckoh" or "the Company")

Eckoh to provide PCI DSS compliant payment services to the Legal Services Commission

Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK), the UK's leading provider of customer service solutions using speech recognition, is pleased to announce it has extended its existing relationship with the Ministry of Justice ("MoJ") to now provide card payment services to the Legal Services Commission ("LSC").

Eckoh has been providing automated payment services to the MoJ since June 2004, enabling the quick payment of fines over the phone and more importantly in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards ("PCI DSS").

Eckoh will be providing the LSC with an automated telephone payment service using Eckoh's payment product EckohPAY, in order to provide a PCI DSS compliant payment service and reduce the cost to LSC of processing these transactions.

The LSC is a non-departmental public body that is sponsored by the MoJ. It works in partnership with solicitors and not-for-profit organisations to help over two million people each year access legal advice, information and help. The LSC currently receives £200 million in payments annually from clients and third parties. Following this agreement, LSC payees will be given an automated telephone option for payment that will speed up payment times through a secure platform.

The EckohPAY service, which will be available in both English and Welsh, will validate the caller against a unique reference number, capture card details in a PCI DSS compliant manner and handle card authorisation and settlement in real-time. At any time during the process, the caller will have the option to transfer to a contact centre and speak to an Eckoh agent.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh says:

"We are delighted with this opportunity to extend our relationship with the Ministry of Justice and develop a payments solution for the Legal Services Commission. This clearly demonstrates the robust nature of EckohPAY and that the benefits of using the solution are extremely compelling.

We are seeing significant interest in our EckohPAY product and believe its ability to both reduce cost whilst ensuring a safe and secure payment environment will continue to drive demand for our services."

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About Eckoh plc

Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK) is the UK's leading provider of customer service solutions using speech recognition, and complementary services on the web and mobile.

Eckoh's solutions enable transactions, enquiries or payments to be processed without the caller needing to talk to a contact centre. This significantly reduces its clients' costs, whilst freeing up contact centre agents to deal with more complex enquiries. Eckoh is the largest provider of such hosted services in the UK.

Eckoh's secure and resilient infrastructure has the scalability to handle over 650,000 calls an hour and up to 8,000 calls simultaneously, which means calls can always be answered no matter how unpredictable the circumstances.

For more information, visit: www.eckoh.com

About The Legal Services Commission

The Legal Services Commission ("LSC") is responsible for delivering, through high quality service providers, legal aid (publicly funded advice and representation) to people with legal problems in England and Wales. The LSC are a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and play a big part in helping the MoJ achieve its aims.

Legal aid enables people to safeguard their rights and address their problems. Our work is therefore essential to the fair, effective and efficient operation of the civil and criminal justice systems. It is also critical in helping to provide access to justice and fair trials with professional representation.

The LSC employs around 1,500 people based in 13 sites across England and Wales. We commission the services people need from solicitors, barristers and advice agencies. The skills and commitment of legal aid service providers are essential to helping people resolve their problems.

We deliver legal services through two schemes: the Community Legal Service ("CLS") and the Criminal Defence Service ("CDS"). Both schemes have eligibility criteria in relation to the means of the client and the nature of the problem, with certain limited exceptions.

For more information, visit: www.legalservices.gov.uk

About The Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice ("MOJ") is one of the largest government departments, with around 95,000 people and a budget of £9.2 billion.

Every year around nine million people use its services in 900 locations across the United Kingdom, including 650 courts and tribunals and 139 prisons in England and Wales.

The MOJ's work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy, rights and the constitution. It has responsibility for different parts of the justice system - the courts, prisons, probation services and attendance centres. They work in partnership with the other government departments and agencies to reform the criminal justice system, to serve the public and support the victims of crime.

For more information, visit: www.justice.gov.uk