Travelex, the world’s largest non-bank foreign exchange payments company, today announces that it is acquiring the overseas businesses of Reisebank, the market leader of foreign currency in Germany for a price of approximately €3.4million. The acquisition involves 25 Reisebank branches in Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and allows Travelex to enter the Austrian market for the first time. The retail foreign exchanges and money transfer businesses of Reisebank in The Netherlands are currently operated under the name Cash Express. These branches will become part of GWK Bank N.V., acquired by Travelex in 2004, and will operate under the name GWK Travelex. The Swiss branches will be acquired by Travelex Switzerland and will be integrated into the existing Travelex organisation in Switzerland. The Austrian branches will become part of GWK Bank N.V., subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities.

Clive Kahn, Chief Executive of The Travelex Group commented: "This acquisition will strengthen our existing Continental European operations and follows our successful acquisition of GWK, the Netherlands' leading foreign exchange specialist, in 2004. We continue to believe that there are a number of attractive opportunities for us to grow Travelex further in Continental Europe as the sector continues to consolidate."

Mr Wolf-Dieter Weschke, member of the board of ReiseBank and CashExpress, explains: “Becoming part of the international network of Travelex will provide the businesses of Reisebank in Switzerland and Austria and Cash Express in the Netherlands with new opportunities to grow in a changing environment and to offer new products and services to its customers."

Ends

About Reisebank and Cash Express

With 75 years of experience ReiseBank is Germany´s market leader for foreign exchange. In addition, international money transfer with Western Union, cash management, precious metals and the exploitation of ATMs are core businesses of the bank. ReiseBank has over 80 branches in Germany and is a subsidiary of DZ BANK AG forming part of the cooperative financial network with more than 1200 cooperative banks

About Travelex

Founded in 1976 by Lloyd Dorfman, Travelex is now the world’s largest non-bank foreign exchange payments company serving over 29 million customers each year.

Corporate Services

Travelex is the world’s largest non-bank provider of foreign exchange services to over 16,000 corporate clients across the globe. For financial institutions, Travelex provides business process outsourcing for foreign exchange products, cross border settlement and bankers’ drafts.

Outsourcing

Travelex is the world’s largest and most automated provider of outsourced travel money and related fulfillment services for banks, financial institutions and travel agencies, processing over 3 million orders annually. Travelex offers its customers a full range of delivery channel options including telephone and web-based ordering.

Retail services

40% of the world’s airline passengers now pass through airports at which Travelex operates its retail foreign exchange branches, including the major gateways at London, New York, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Sydney. Other retail services and products range from prepaid cards, travellers cheques and money transfer to call centre services and travel insurance.

Press contacts

For more information please contact:
Paul Adels, Manager Business Development & Marketing
Tel. +31 (0)20 569 07 82.
E-mail: paul.adels@travelex.com