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Press release
10th August 2006

The S Group chooses Visa as a partner

Finnish customer-owners will be able to add Visa Card facilities to their S Bonus Card when the S group’s S-Bank opens in the latter part of 2007. Visa, the international payment card, has been chosen as a partner in line with customer-owners’ wishes.

Customer-owners will have the option of adding Visa Card facilities to their S Bonus Card. The S-Bank will grant a Visa Card to customer-owners, who will be entitled to use the card as a form of payment in more than 24 million locations worldwide and at more than 60,000 locations in Finland. They will also be able to use the card to withdraw cash from Visa ATMs and Otto cash points.

“We are extremely delighted to enter into a partnership with a major retail trade group in Finland,” says Sven Estwall, General Manager responsible for Northern European operations at Visa Europe.

Customer-owners can already use their S Bonus Card as a form of payment from their S-T ili account and S-Etuluotto credit at all S Group locations as well as at individually specified locations of the S Group’s partners. Studies were carried out at the beginning of the year into the feasibility of adding the international payment card to the S Bonus Card. Visa is ideally suited to the customer-owner concept. It is also the best-known card brand among S Group customer-owners.

“Adding Visa to the S Bonus Card will make life even easier for customer-owners in that they will only need one card. Bonuses will be recorded at the time of a transaction and it will be possible to use the familiar green card as a form of payment around the world,” says Pekka Ylihurula, Managing Director of S-Bank.

The S-Bank will primarily serve customer-owners, and the bank will target the benefits it offers at them. The planned services will revolve around existing account and card services.

The S Group’s financial services have a history of almost one hundred years and a strong customer-owner base. There are around 1.1 million S Accounts with assets amounting to more than EUR 650 million.

For further information, please contact:
Pekka Ylihurula, Managing Director, S-Bank Ltd, tel. +358 50 388 3800, pekka.saaskilahti@sok.fi
Sven Estwall, General Manager, Nordics and Baltics, Visa Europe, tel. +46 8 440 3575, estwalls@visa.com

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