HAZLET, N.J., Jan. 18, 2005 -- Retail Decisions (ReD), an international provider of payment processing and fraud prevention services to the retail, banking, telecom and e-commerce sectors, announced two product enhancements for its fraud prevention service, ebitGuard(TM). Designed for enterprise-class high volume merchants in the card-not-present (CNP) space, the integration of ReD's PRISM(R) neural technology and Dynamic Data Validation will bring an even higher level of security to retail fraud prevention.

According to recent studies, annual incidences of credit card fraud involving CNP transactions are rising at an alarming pace -- more than 700 percent between 1998 and 2003. Many industry experts forecast a continued rise in fraudulent card activity due primarily to the introduction of Chip and PIN technology in Europe and increases in online retailing in the U.S., which will force more fraudsters away from traditional in-store shopping to prey on mail order, online, or over the phone transactions.

The new enhancements to ebitGuard leverage the science of neural technology to address the rising occurrence and shifting trends of credit card fraud. Specifically, the enhancements will provide mass retailers with the following:

* PRISM neural technology (groups of complex statistical algorithms) is able to detect abnormal cardholder behavior, distinguish subtle differences manifested by fraudulent orders compared to superficially similar valid orders. Simultaneously, PRISM incrementally learns new purchasing behavior or pattern changes adapting its model and intelligence resulting in a dynamic system that detects emerging fraud schemes.

* Dynamic Data Validation matches a consumer's billing and shipping information with multiple public records. Additionally, Dynamic Data Validation is able to find additional profitable sales opportunities in AVS and CVV failures. After integrating and testing Dynamic Data Validation, ReD was able to demonstrate as much as a further 30 percent reduction of transactions that were recommended for manual review.

Carl Clump, CEO of Retail Decisions plc, stated: "As a market-leading service provider catering to the needs of the world's top CNP retailers, ReD continually strives to innovate, create and expand its services to provide clients with the most advanced fraud prevention technology."

In addition to preventing fraud, PRISM and Dynamic Data Validation will dramatically increase approval rates and top line revenue for retailers. ebitGuard, which is monitored by ReD's experienced team of fraud analysts 24 x 7 x 365, processes transactions through merchant-specific rules, negative card and email databases, pattern and velocity detection engines, among other components, and returns a dynamic recommendation (Accept, Deny or Challenge) in less than one second.

Clump added, "PRISM's superior cardholder behavior profiling enables our clients to fast track the transactions of repeat customers decreasing their manual reviews. Additionally, Dynamic Data Validation allows merchants to match their customers against multiple public records. Combined, these two new components will provide merchants with the ability to grow their businesses more quickly and confidently than ever before."

ReD's PRISM technology currently protects payment processors and financial institutions around the world. ReD's risk management and payment processing clients include: The Royal Bank of Canada, Macy's.com, The Finish Line, Inc., GSI Commerce, Walmart.com, GE Capital, Buy.com, Netflix, RealNetworks and Travelocity.com

About Retail Decisions

Retail Decisions, Inc. (ReD USA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Retail Decisions plc.

Retail Decisions is an international electronic payment transaction services business that provides fraud prevention, enterprise-wide payment processing and value-added transaction and consulting services to the retail, finance, telecommunications and e-commerce sectors. ReD is able to predict and prevent payment card fraud, process high volumes of credit card and electronic check transactions and has a platform for a full range of transaction based value-added services.

ReD has more than 16 years experience in payment card risk management and processing services with operations in the United States, Europe, South Africa and Australia.

Retail Decisions plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: RTD). For more information regarding Retail Decisions, visit http://www.redplc.com or http://www.red-usa.com.