Concord EFS Launches USA Patriot Act Compliance Program; IDENTITY CHEK Product Will Address Act's ``Verification of Identification'' Requirements.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2001

Concord EFS, Inc. (Nasdaq:CEFT), a leading electronic commerce provider, announced today that it has launched a nationwide compliance program to help financial institutions fulfill key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, newly enacted legislation to block terrorist access to the U.S. financial system. Concord's service, IDENTITY CHEK(SM), is an "intelligent" computer software system that uses multiple national databases to identify suspicious information used to open new deposit accounts. IDENTITY CHEK is offered through Concord's majority-owned subsidiary, Primary Payment Systems, Inc., a leading provider of risk management solutions to the financial services industry.

"With our compliance program, we're letting financial institutions know that we are committed to help them meet their compliance requirements for "verification of identification" that will be set forth later this year by the Treasury Department," said Edward A. Labry III, Concord president.

The USA Patriot Act includes provisions for fighting international money laundering and blocking terrorist access to the U.S. financial system. Section 326 of the Act addresses the creation of minimum requirements for verification of customer identification in the new account opening process, scheduled to become effective by October 25, 2002.

Currently used by many of the country's largest financial institutions, IDENTITY CHEK performed hundreds of tests on over 27 million new account openings in the last 12 months for invalid, inconsistent, and unusual elements of an individual's identification. With over 14 years of continual refinement, IDENTITY CHEK not only has become the de facto standard for determining the identity of a customer in connection with the opening of an account, but also addresses the compliance requirements of the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

IDENTITY CHEK is unique in the way it combines and analyzes data, enabling it to identify not just suspicious individuals, but also potential fraud rings. Labry says that the application of this capability to identifying terrorist cells is promising. "In light of the September 11th events, we conducted a test using public information provided by the FBI, and IDENTITY CHEK uncovered irregularities in the personal information used by 13 of the 19 original terrorists," said Labry. "These test results demonstrate that this powerful technology can be used to perform advanced identity screening for a variety of transactions to enhance overall security."

As part of the Primary Payment Systems' suite of Early Warning(R) solutions, IDENTITY CHEK plays a major role in creating what is now regarded as the largest and most current repository of information on accounts, transactions and people. The Early Warning suite also includes:

-- DEPOSIT CHEK, which provides advanced notification of potential check
returns to financial institutions;

-- PRIME CHEK, which helps protect credit card issuers and remittance
processors from losses due to bad or fraudulent payments;

-- STAR CHEK(R), which provides retailers with online access via the STAR(SM)
network for use at the point of sale.

Concord is a leading, vertically integrated electronic transaction processor, providing transaction authorization, data capture, settlement and funds transfer services to financial institutions, supermarkets, petroleum retailers, convenience stores, and other independent retailers. Concord's primary activities include Network Services, providing ATM driving, online and signature debit card processing, and STAR(SM) network access to the financial services industry; Payment Services, providing credit, debit, check authorization, and electronic benefits transfer processing services to selected retail segments; and Risk Management Services to various industries through its majority-owned Primary Payment Systems subsidiary. Concord news releases, links to SEC filings, and other information are available on its corporate web site at www.concordefs.com.

This release may contain or incorporate by reference forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by those statements. Concord undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or changes to future results over time. See the cautionary statements included as Exhibit 99.1 to our Form 8-K filed on July 18, 2001 for a more detailed discussion of certain of the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements.