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November 1, 2005:
TIO Network signs agreement to provide Bill payment services at Circle K locations in Arizona

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September 15, 2005:
Pre-paidPress Reports: 5 Minutes With Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman & CEO of Info Touch Technologies



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5 Minutes With Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman & CEO of Info Touch Technologies

PrepaidPress • September 15 2005

Info Touch is a multi-retailer network of financial services kiosks for the non-banked consumer marketplace. Among a wide array of retail partnerships is Circle K, where nearly two hundred terminals are already connected to the “TIO Network.” This network offers a variety of automated services such as bill payment, money transfer, digital merchandising, PIN dispensing for prepaid products and services, maps and directions, check cashing and electronic coupons. Thirty-one year old Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman and CEO of Info Touch., has forged a wide variety of strategic partnerships with major players, including a 20% equity investment in the company by Hewlett Packard (Compaq). He shared with us the insights and visions that have made these alliances possible.

HS: People are trying to meet the needs of the growing unbanked community because they see a lot of opportunity. There are a host of prepaid financial services players – banks and retailers – that are starting to get involved in this game. We are helping them create this self-service financial services area in their stores. We see ourselves as an outsourced category manager for financial services. We also know that convenience stores see themselves as a bank for the unbanked. Retailers are starting to act as financial institutions.

GR: We hear a lot about the unbanked. Who are these are all these people and why don’t they have bank accounts?

HS: The estimates are all over the map. I’ve heard estimates that there are also twenty million U.S. born who are unbanked, so I don’t think this is just an immigrant issue. I think immigrants are more likely to be unbanked, especially unauthorized immigrants. Obviously, unauthorized immigrants coming into the country see the bank to be a pipeline of information to the State Department.

GR: Which it might be.

HS: Which it might be. If you look at the Mexican banking system, they weren’t very mindful of consumer rights, let’s just say. So, I think a lot of people don't feel very good about their previous relationships and how banks went about their business. Those things contribute as well. I also think that some people are trying to be under the radar. Perhaps they haven’t paid their taxes in a while, or that their wife doesn’t get the paychecks, so they are engaging in check cashing activities. Precash did an interesting study and found that 40% of their customers actually have a bank account. These services are not just for unbanked people; they are for underbanked people.

GR: Even with all this, it still does not seem to account for the numbers of people using these services, does it?

HS: Some of these people are hand to mouth and a banking relationship does not add a lot of value to their lives.

GR: It could cost them, what with overdraft charges and so on.

HS: Exactly. The last thing some people want to do is to spend time and money on banking relationships, whether or not he could derive any kind of incremental benefit. To some of these people, it seems that, ‘when I am struggling to live, what do I need with a bank?’

GR: So, is this why convenience stores see a great value to having a financial services terminal in their location?

HS: Yes. I think it is somewhat of a “double dip.” Not only is this thing driving new and incremental customers to the location, which obviously results in incremental sales at the till, but those people are also engaging in services that they are paying for at the kiosk. So, it’s a new profit center, which they need, and it’s also something that is driving more product sales. If you really think about it the convenience retail needs to diversify. They have this incredible footprint across the country, the best corner lot in the major arteries, 140,000 of these convenience stores all across the country. They are leveraging that really, really strong footprint for petroleum, twinkies, Cokes, smokes and regular convenience store items. They are smart guys and they are saying, ‘hey, we’re a real estate company’ and they recognize the value of their dirt. They are saying, ‘how can we leverage this dirt?’ and they are cultivating a service offering. This comes to the question of how do you take on this juggernaut of Walmart? Walmart has identified convenience retail as one of the core elements they want to get involved with more.

GR: So, how do you beat Walmart?

HS: You don’t beat Walmart, but the people who have co-existed with them are people who have cultivated strong services offerings. They’ve engaged in more of a services type attitude as opposed to product, quality and price. They will murder you on that. But, at the end of the day, this industry does have something on Walmart. It is not convenient to pay your bill at Walmart. Not because it cannot provide infrastructure, products and price, but because you want to pay your bill, you are in a rush, and it is just not as convenient. You can park your car, and be inside a convenience store in 8.5 seconds. You cannot do that at Walmart. Convenience is a key battleground and convenience stores and convenience retail chains still have an advantage. Financial services is a key area where they diversify and add value.

GR: It sounds like other retail stores besides convenience stores could benefit by offering financial services?

HS: Everyone is looking at this. In Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about Walgreens being the convenience store drugstore. They would close down a store just to move to the end of the block so they could grab that corner lot. They cluster, they go 24 hours. They are doing that so they can capture the conveniences.

GR: What is next for prepaid financial networks like Info Touch?

HS: When you look at the competency of collecting cash, reconciling cash, remitting cash, settling cash, being able to move large sums of cash through the self-service network, we try to be very open minded about the products and services we can facilitate by leveraging that competency, paying your car insurance, paying anything that would require some sort of cash payment. We are just scratching the surface. Prepaid is a growing category and going into all sorts of different sectors right now. You can pretty well buy prepaid anything right now. We see the growth of stored value as a very, very key element which we are watching very closely, because plastic is going to acquire customers, especially with these innovative stored value, virtual debit mutations that are coming out.

GR: What do you see as the most important consideration in the growth of prepaid financial networks?

HS: There is fundamentally one thing that needs to happen. People will still need a place where they can load cash onto that card. No matter what kind of stored value card you bring out to the marketplace, there will need to be a reload network. These unbanked or underbanked people acquire these tools that make them more banked, that is great, but they are still not banked. All they have done is to acquire tools that will make them appear more banked.

GR: What do you think are the most important strategies for financial services networks in the future?

HS: One of our core beliefs is that we are going to power the reload movement, becoming the convenient outpost where we can reload value unto the rails of the ATM network. One thing we don’t want to do is to add cash dispensing capabilities unto our devices. We know that we will have to do it at some point in time, and we are starting to do it in some places, but we would like to do that as little as possible, because there are already 289,000 ATMs out there. Why add more? What people need is an outlet where they can convert cash to digital, where they can convert cash to currency that rides on the rails of the networks. At the end of the day, the company that executes best on this financial services strategy is going to keep in mind how the growth of plastic and the debit networks work. To be a successful financial services network, I think you have to be a universal reload center and to power that reload movement.

Hamed Shahbazi is Chairman & CEO of Info Touch Technologies.

Visit Info Touch online at www.infotouch.net , or contact pr@infotouch.net.

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