MAGTEK'S EXPRESSCARD EMV SELECTED BY METRO BANK, BRITAIN'S NEWEST RETAIL BANK IN MORE THAN 100 YEARS

Seal Beach, CA 90740 (August 25, 2010) – MagTek, Inc., a global leader in card technology since 1972, today announced Metro Bank's successful deployment of ExpressCard EMV – a revolutionary new system that allows custom printed EMV Chip and PIN Cards to be issued in their retail stores.

ExpressCard EMV works in association with Verisoft's InstantEMV application and Thales' P3 data preparation to enable its users to create and issue personalised EMV Chip and PIN Cards. By combining multiple card personalisation options, including customer PIN selection, embossing, magnetic stripe encoding and EMV compliant chip activation in one device, the ExpressCard EMV is the ideal platform for secure EMV card issuance.

"We are pleased to be working with Metro Bank as they redefine retail branch banking in Britain", says Lou Struett, MagTek's Executive Vice President and head of MagTek's international sales. "Metro Bank is clearly poised for market leadership as they raise the bar for new levels of customer service. Our team at MagTek has skilfully designed and manufactured the ExpressCard EMV to create convenient delivery channels for secure EMV cards that can be customised and still remain cost-effective to issue in the branch."

ExpressCard EMV provides unprecedented customer service and security during the delivery of the card to the cardholder. A highly intelligent system, ExpressCard EMV incorporates multiple security features ensuring that card stock is fully secured and only authorised machines can produce cards.

"We want to kill stupid bank rules and we believe one of these rules is that you have to wait two weeks for your card and PIN number" says, Craig Donaldson, Chief Executive Officer at Metro Bank. "Working with MagTek we have developed a solution where customers get their cards in store and set their own pin number on the spot."

For more information about ExpressCard EMV, please visit MagTekEurope.com

About MagTek
Since 1972, MagTek has been a leading manufacturer of electronic devices and systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, checks, PINs and other identification documents. Leading with innovation and engineering excellence, MagTek is known for quality and dependability. Its products include secure card readers, check scanners, PIN pads and distributed credential issuing systems. These products are used worldwide by financial institutions, retailers, hotels, law enforcement agencies and other organizations to provide secure and efficient electronic payment and identification transactions.

Today, MagTek continues to innovate with the development of a new generation of security centric products secured by MagneSafe™. By leveraging strong encryption, secure tokenization, real time authentication and dynamic payment card data, MagneSafe products enable users to assess and validate the trustworthiness of credentials used for online identification, payment processing, and other high-value electronic transactions.
MagTek is based in Seal Beach, California and has sales offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with independent distributors in over 40 countries. For more information, please visit www.magtek.com

About Metro Bank
Metro Bank was co-founded by Vernon Hill and Anthony Thomson. It is based on the successful Commerce Bank model that was established by Vernon Hill in the US in 1973. A UK management team worked with Vernon Hill to help bring this model to the UK market.
Metro Bank operates retail hours, not banking hours. It will be open seven days a week (8am- 8pm Monday to Friday, 8am - 6pm Saturday, 11am - 4pm Sunday and bank holidays), every day of the year apart from Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Metro Bank PLC. Registered in England and Wales. Company number: 6419578. Registered office: One Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5HA. 'Metrobank' is the registered trade mark of Metro Bank PLC.
Metro Bank PLC is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. In relation to our acceptance of deposits and provision of investment and insurance services, Metro Bank PLC is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority ('FSA'). In relation to our consumer credit business, Metro Bank PLC is licensed and regulated by the Office of Fair Trading and not by the FSA. Most relevant deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. For further information about the Scheme refer to the FSCS website www.fscs.org.uk.
All Metro Bank products are subject to status and approval.
Metro Bank PLC is an independent UK bank - it is not affiliated with any other bank or organisation (including the METRO newspaper or its publishers) anywhere in the world. Please refer to Metro Bank using the full name.

Metro Bank is led by a talented team of UK Executives:
- Craig Donaldson, Chief Executive Officer, formerly Managing Director of Retail Banking at Royal Bank of Scotland
- Paul Marriott-Clarke, Managing Director, Retail Banking, formerly Managing Director, Network South, Retail, HBOS
- Darren Schindler, Managing Director, Commercial Banking, formerly CEO, Oak Capital Group
- Aisling Kane, Chief Operations Officer, formerly Director of UK Operations at Anglo Irish Bank
- Mike Brierley, Chief Financial Officer, formerly Director, Business Risk at Barclaycard
- Mike Hudson, Chief Risk Officer, formerly Group Head of Risk at Hitachi Capital

Its non-executive directors are:
- Stuart Bernau, former Retail Director, Nationwide Building Society
- Keith Carby, Co-founder, J Rothschild Assurance
- Howard Flight, Founder, Guinness Flight Asset Management
- Ben Gunn, former Chief Executive of Friends Provident Life & Pensions
- Vernon Hill, Founder of Commerce Bank
- Eugene Lockhart, former CEO of Midland Bank and MasterCard International and former President, Global Retail Banking at Bank of America
- Anthony Thomson, Chairman, Financial Services Forum