Primax and New England Bankcard Association Host 2008 Client Conference

(WAKEFIELD, MA) JUNE 5, 2008 – Primax and New England Bankcard Association (NEBA) held their annual client conference on June 2-4, 2008, at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland. NEBA members, Primax clients and invited guests were treated to a mixture of relevant payment system presentations and group discussion sessions designed to stimulate new ideas and enable networking among participants.

“Our goal for this year’s client conference was to create an intimate environment where our guests learn that the credit card business is still a strong and competitive market, regardless of economic conditions,” Ted Keith, CEO of NEBA and Primax, said of the conference. “We wanted them to enjoy themselves among colleagues and friends, and come away with a positive attitude about managing and growing their credit card and merchant programs.”

Attendees heard from payment experts including Ken Paterson, Director of the Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group, who reviewed market factors driving today's credit card marketplace and suggested strategic tools that may be used by credit card issuers to revitalize their growth in originating new accounts and building volume with existing accounts.

Robert L. Cook of Dale Carnegie examined market change and the importance of the manager’s attitudes when dealing with change, the effects our attitudes have and how to control attitude. Additionally, bankcard industry heavyweights such as Visa, MasterCard, and Discover were present to address topics including: contactless issuance, evolving business models, trends in bankcard fraud and PCI compliance initiatives aimed at reducing losses due to account data compromise.

Entertainment was provided throughout the two-day conference, and guests were treated to an assortment of activities, ranging from a trip to Camden Yards to watch the Baltimore Orioles face off against the Boston Red Sox, to a vendor product fair, an award give-away, and networking receptions.

About Primax
Since 1981 the principal focus of Primax, formerly known as T.K. Keith Company, Inc., has been to strengthen the customer relations and profitability of its clients with exceptional, customizable, high-quality card and card-processing programs, products and services.

Working with community-minded issuing and agent financial institutions throughout the U.S., Primax designs, implements and supports credit, debit, gift and commercial card programs, products and services. For its Merchant clients, Primax offers the best in card-processing programs, products and services via advanced processing systems and product options including MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover credit cards, as well as signature and PIN-based debit cards and gift cards.

Primax is headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, with satellite offices in various cities throughout the U.S. For more information about Primax and its products, programs and services please visit us at
primaxpayments.com.

About NEBA
NEBA (New England Bankcard Associations) was founded in 1969 as a credit card and merchant acquiring data processing company for New England financial institutions. NEBA provides a full range of credit card issuing, debit card, ATM driving solutions, and merchant acquiring programs for domestic and international financial institutions.

One of the twelve original regional MasterCharge associations, today NEBA has Members with programs operating in numerous states, the District of Columbia, and three countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Members can choose to offer a full range of payment system products and services, including credit, debit, ATM and stored value cards, ATM processing and merchant acceptance services. Members have total control in the design and management of their respective programs, are not required to offer specific products and may elect to develop as few as one of the many payment system products NEBA supports.

NEBA has remained an FDR client since 1981, and uses a number of leading industry leading vendors to provide a wide range of payment system products and services, including Alliance Data, Cardinal Commerce, Chase Paymentech, CPI Card Group, Data Delivery Services (DDS), Discover, First Data Merchant Services, First Data Resources (FDR), First Data Solutions, Fiserv, Meta Payment Systems, Oberthur, RewardsNow, Telecheck, TSYS, Valutec, and Verifone.

NEBA Press Release 060508