Earthport Regulatory News (EPO)

10 Jan 2007 09:00

Earthport PLC10 January 2007 10 January 2007 Earthport announces agreement with Virtual Automated Technologies Inc Earthport plc ("Earthport" or the "Company) announces that it has entered intoan agreement to provide international payment services for Virtual AutomatedTechnologies Inc ("VAT"). VAT is an Oregon based Global Payment Solutions Provider. VAT's proprietarySpeedyWallet(TM) software links stored-value cards and other unique globalpayment programmes to the Internet, creating a most innovative and comprehensiveweb-enabled solution for the management of sending and receiving globalpayments. Making use of the Earthport Universal Payments Network ("UPN"), VAT will expandits services to both its existing and new clients commencing with its TravelPay(TM) service. TravelPay(TM) is a new service providing an innovative solution to the problemsof settling low value international payments within the travel industry. Thepayment and settlement of large monetary amounts within the travel industry isalready handled by the Global Distribution Systems (GDS's) but none of them havean integrated fulfilment payment and settlement function and, as a result,delays of 30-45 days in the payment being made are not uncommon. Smallerpayments - such as a booking commission from a hotel to a travel agent or from alocal car hire company back to an online travel agent - cannot be handledeconomically by the GDS systems. An average business stay in a hotel is around 2.5 nights at a rate of $70, whichresults in a commission of $17.50 (at a 10% commission rate). With the averagecost of commission payment/collection transfer being $30, the economics do notwork and currently, these monies either do not get collected at all or papercheques are used. Using TravelPayTM, a hotel receiving a booking via an overseas agent willdeposit funds using a local bank transfer into a local Earthport bank account.As soon as the funds are cleared, the travel agent's e-wallet will be updated toshow the arrival of the funds which can then either be withdrawn (and exchangedinto local currency if required) or left in the e-wallet and used to payinternational suppliers or agents. The TravelPay(TM) Program is not only cost efficient (generating estimatedsavings of 80% over the current method of processing booking agent fees), but isalso time efficient, generally settling all accounts within twenty-four hours.Utilising the TravelPay(TM) system will provide significant benefits for boththe travel industry reservation system and the booking agents. David Fife, Earthport CEO, commented: "This exciting contract underlines thereach and efficiency of the Earthport UPN for industries with unresolved paymentneeds and highlights Earthport's strategy. It proves our ability to provide asecure and cost efficient service to a diverse range of industries and we aredelighted to partner VAT in this project with TravelPay(TM)." -End- Press enquiries:David Fife CEO - Earthport plc +44 20 7220 9700Mark Ashurst - Canaccord/Adams Limited +44 20 7050 6500Lulu Bridges/Polly Hutchinson - Tavistock Communications +44 20 7920 3150 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange