Nochex, the UK's leading independent online payment services provider has been banned from eBay, along with Google and a string of other payment service providers.

Martin Greenbank, CEO of Nochex said, "We discovered the ban, which was made without consultation with us, or our customers. It looks like a knee-jerk reaction as it was made within two days of the Google Checkout launch. The ban comes on top of reports in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/technology/10ebay.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) that eBay are losing key executives and have seen 45% of their share value wiped out, so eBay may well be rattled. But our main concern is for our customers who are denied the choice of using a well-proven, cost-effective, secure payment services provider with a UK-based support service. That is an important ingredient in giving UK businesses the confidence to grow an ecommerce business effectively."

Nochex, the UK's leading independent online payment services provider has been banned from eBay, along with Google and a string of other payment service providers.

"eBay has updated their accepted payment policy to exclude Nochex and Google along with a host of other players to effectively limit payment options to their own PayPal, or a few much smaller, lesser known providers. And we have seen media reports that sellers who continue to promote the Google option will be excluded from eBay. We don't know yet whether the veto will be extended to other payment providers."

"I really wonder what the EU Competition Commission will make of this move as they are already mounting an enquiry into competition within the payment cards industry. I would have thought this would be a relatively easy add-on? This move certainly reduces the payment services options available, especially if an online trader or buyer wants to use a provider with an established UK-based support service."

"Fortunately, our core business is in providing online traders with cost effective all-in-one Merchant Accounts. During this year we have experienced fantastic growth with an increased number of eMoney merchant accounts being opened, and we are currently seeing an even greater increase in new merchant account applications. This growth appears to be driven by traders migrating from eBay."

"The UK payment industry is demonstrating unprecedented growth and we see Google’s entrance into the market as a positive sign, which will in turn, create a competitive market and give greater consumer choice."

ENDS (Nochex Press FactFile follows)

For further information or comment, please contact Penny Haywood at PHPR on 0131 669 5190 (24/7 home + office number) or mobile 07850 657 714 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

OR

Rob Harrison, Marketing Manager, Nochex Ltd, on 0113 346 6205 or on 0113 346 6205 orMobile 0784 104 7093 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

www.nochex.com

• Nochex is an independent, privately-held company based in Leeds, England.
• Founded in 1999, Nochex has been providing individuals and small businesses with a secure, reliable electronic payment service in the UK since January 2001.
• The payment system was initially adopted by UK auction website users for person-to-person payments, but is now more active providing affordable internet merchant services and online payment services for web-shop owners, primarily for small and medium sized businesses selling online in the UK.
• Nochex is focussed on providing a reliable, trust-worthy internet payment system that is both competitive and, most importantly, secure, with good customer support services.
• A key benefit is that Nochex is easy to use, so more sales transactions are completed through Nochex than many other online service providers, boosting our ecommerce clients’ sales by as much as 24%.
• Nochex has around one million registered users in the UK, and continues to increase rapidly.

For further information or comment, please contact Penny Haywood at PHPR on 0131 669 5190 (24/7 home + office number) or mobile 07850 657 714 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

OR

Rob Harrison, Marketing Manager, Nochex Ltd, on 0113 346 6205 or on 0113 346 6205 orMobile 0784 104 7093 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

www.nochex.com