ACI Worldwide and SmartTrust Partner to Provide m-commerce solutions.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

OMAHA, Neb. & PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2001

Partnership to open new Online and Mobile Payment

opportunities for Telecoms and Finance Industries

ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: TSAI), a leading international provider of enterprise e-payment solutions, announces a partnership agreement with Sonera SmartTrust, Ltd., a leading developer of infrastructure solutions designed to enable secure mobile e-services. Under the agreement, the two will jointly market and promote their software to telecom and financial institutions.

SmartTrust's solutions enable secure m-commerce services. The solutions provide service and device management tools and allow consumers to store their digital identity on a mobile phone to generate binding digital signatures from their handsets -- public key infrastructure (PKI) technology. As a result, the solutions help mobile operators and financial institutions respond to recent legislation in the U.S. and European Union that makes digital signatures as legally binding as written signatures.

SmartTrust solutions allow consumers to authenticate purchases and transactions utilizing digital signature technology, while ACI solutions acquire those transactions and route them for authorization to complete purchases. Using the combined solutions, network operators and financial institutions can open new payment channels that give consumers the ability to initiate purchases and transactions on open networks such as the Internet and mobile networks without compromising security.

With SmartTrust and ACI solutions in place, a network operator or financial institution can offer m-commerce services to mobile phone users. A consumer using such a service can initiate a payment or purchase via their mobile phone. SmartTrust software on the SIM card in the mobile phone will generate a financial transaction signed by the consumer's private key and send the transaction to the network operator or financial institution. SmartTrust software at the receiving end will then validate the signature and pass the transaction to ACI software for authorization and payment. Once authorized, ACI software will generate a message that is sent back through the same security process to confirm completion of the purchase. The entire process is fast, secure and transparent to the consumer.

"We are always on the lookout for products and partnerships that allow us to couple our strengths with those of other proven providers to offer more complete solutions," said Jim Tomaney, marketing director of ACI Worldwide's Europe/Middle East/Africa operation. "In this case, we are able to partner with a provider of solutions that we believe are critical to the future success of mobile e-services. SmartTrust's expertise in deploying solutions for secure mobile e-services, coupled with ACI's e-payments experience, supports our goal to help our customers adopt new economy technologies that expand their business opportunities."

"The Global Partnership signed with ACI delivers strong expertise in the e-payments market, further promoting our efforts to build secure payment networks for transactions conducted in a mobile environment," said Matti Heikkila, director of Finance Industry segment for Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. "Co-operation with specialized solution and channel partners to develop, offer and implement secure wireless solutions is one of the cornerstones of SmartTrust's strategy. With every partnership we take a further step towards fulfilling the growing demand for mobile e-services and secure wireless transactions."

About SmartTrust

Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. is a leading developer of infrastructure solutions designed to enable secure mobile e-services. Through the development of our solutions we allow organizations within the mobile ecosystem to deliver mobile e-services that inspire confidence and convenience in the sharing and trading of online information, products and services.

By supporting multiple generations of networks and mobile devices, SmartTrust is able to offer the best end-user reach possible to 160 corporate customers and nearly 60 mobile operator customers.

SmartTrust is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonera Corporation (HEX: SRA, NASDAQ: SNRA), an international forerunner in mobile communications as well as mobile and Internet-based services and applications (www.sonera.com).

For more information, please visit www.smarttrust.com

About ACI Worldwide

Every second of every day, consumers are initiating electronic payment transactions--getting cash at ATMs, using debit and credit cards to make purchases in stores and on the Internet, banking by phone and PC, paying bills online. Twenty billion times a year, ACI software is used to process these transactions, powering the world's online payment systems. ACI was founded in 1975 and pioneered the development of applications and networking software for online transaction processing. Today more than 2,000 customers in 78 countries use ACI supplied software. Visit ACI Worldwide on the Internet at www.aciworldwide.com.