ACCEO Solutions Joins EPASOrg as an Associate Member and Becomes the First North American Technology Provider to Be Accepted as a Member

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Jan. 31, 2013) - ACCEO Solutions Inc., a leading Canadian provider of IT consulting services, as well as business and financial solutions for SMBs, is proud to be a new member of EPASOrg, an international, non-profit association that brings together major players in the card payment industry. Based in Brussels, EPASOrg aims to develop common and standard card payment protocols in order to create one payment system for all of Europe. EPAS protocols, which seeks interoperability between electronic card payment systems, are defined in collaboration with ISO (International Organization for Standardization) to help ease deployment in Europe and, eventually, in North America too.

Now an Associate Member, ACCEO Solutions is already actively involved in the association. It is currently collaborating with two work committees addressing, respectively, the Retailer and Acquirer standards. Representatives from ACCEO Solutions are providing their expertise to help define new payment norms and are working with a European financial institution on a major project based on EPAS standards. This project should be launched in the market sometime in 2013.

"We are thrilled to have been accepted as a member of EPASOrg, which includes elite international members of the payment industry," stated Alain Philippe, Executive Vice President, Payments Solutions, ACCEO Solutions. "We are proud to be the first North American provider to join their ranks and our experts are enthusiastically looking forward to contributing to the development of future payment standards."

"EPASOrg welcomes ACCEO Solutions as a new Associate Member and we're certain that the company's expertise and experience with payment will greatly enrich our work," declared William Vanobberghen, Secretary General, EPASOrg.

About ACCEO Solutions

Leading Canadian IT company ACCEO Solutions (formerly GFI Business Solutions) specializes in the design, implementation, integration, and support of management software; e-business development; and payment, professional, and technical services. ACCEO Solutions, which is currently experiencing an active growth phase, boasts nearly 1000 employees, approximately 55 000 clients, and annual revenues of over $100 million. Its most recent acquisitions include Tender Retail, activeMédia Développement, Fortsum Business Solutions, and Bell Business Solutions. These acquisitions have enabled the company to break into new and promising vertical markets and extend its product and service offering to businesses of all sizes and to municipalities and other public service organizations. For more information, please go to www.acceo.com.

About EPASOrg

EPASOrg is an international non-profit association founded by key industry players. The mission of EPASOrg is to foster interoperability by agreeing, developing and implementing common protocol specifications related to secure card payments. The resulting standards, based on best practices, will facilitate an improved experience for merchants and cardholders alike. By increasing standardisation and interoperability, EPASOrg is dedicated to overcoming the barriers of today's fragmented card payment environment.