Global Payments and Discover Financial Services Announce Merchant Acquiring Agreement and Portfolio Acquisition

ATLANTA and RIVERWOODS, Ill., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) , a leader in payment processing services, and Discover Financial Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced they have signed a merchant acquiring agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Global Payments will begin selling Discover Network card acceptance and the company also will purchase the portion of Discover's merchant portfolio for which it currently provides Visa and MasterCard processing.

Under the terms of the agreement, Global Payments, together with its participating alliance partners and direct independent sales organizations (ISOs), will begin offering its merchant base an integrated processing solution that includes Discover Network card acceptance and provides a broader range of payment options at the point of sale.

"We are delighted with this long-term strategic relationship with Discover, which supports our goal of expanding services to our merchants, alliance partners, and ISOs while streamlining their payment options," said Paul R. Garcia, chairman, president and CEO of Global Payments. "This new program reflects a solid long-standing relationship between Global and Discover and demonstrates our commitment to offering outstanding services to mid-sized and small merchants. Together with our alliance partners and ISOs, we hope to expand Discover card acceptance throughout our merchant base."

Through the agreement, merchants, such as restaurants, retailers, and specialty shops will now receive an easy, cost-effective, all-in-one payment processing solution with the convenience of a single source for statements, settlement, and customer service. Global Payments and its participating alliance partners and ISOs will have full responsibility for pricing, processing, settlement, risk management and customer service for the merchant accounts. Global expects to begin offering integrated Discover Network card acceptance during the first quarter of 2007.

"Our agreement with Global is another important example of how Discover is building on its strong relationships with acquirers and merchants," said Harit Talwar, executive vice president of Discover Network. "We expect that merchants will benefit from the advantages this agreement with Global provides. Not only will Global's merchant base receive an integrated, cost- effective, and streamlined payments processing package, but Global's alliance partners and ISOs also benefit from greater opportunity to serve small- to mid-sized merchants."

About Discover Financial Services

Discover Financial Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) , operates the Discover Card with more than 50 million Cardmembers, and the Discover Network, which is the largest proprietary credit card network in the U.S. with more than 4 million merchant and cash access locations. Discover Financial Services also operates the PULSE ATM/debit network, which serves more than 4,200 financial institutions and includes nearly 250,000 ATMs and approximately 3.4 million POS terminals. For more information, visit http://www.discovercard.com/, http://www.discovernetwork.com/ or http://www.pulse-eft.com/.

About Global Payments Inc.

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading provider of electronic transaction processing services for consumers, merchants, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, government agencies and multi- national corporations located throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Global Payments offers a comprehensive line of processing solutions for credit and debit cards, business-to-business purchasing cards, gift cards, electronic check conversion and check guarantee, verification and recovery including electronic check services, as well as terminal management. The company also provides consumer money transfer services from the U.S. and Europe to destinations in Latin America, Morocco and the Philippines. For more information about the company and its services, visit http://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/.

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties such as product demand, market and customer acceptance, the effect of economic conditions, competition, pricing, development difficulties, costs of capital, continued certification by credit card associations, the ability to consummate and integrate acquisitions, and other risks detailed in Global Payments Inc.'s SEC filings, including the most recently filed Form 10-Q or Form 10-K, as applicable. Global Payments Inc. undertakes no obligation to revise any of these statements to reflect future circumstances or the occurrence of unanticipated events.

  MEDIA CONTACTS:
  Global Payments Inc.                  Discover Financial Services
  Phyllis McNeill                       Leslie Beyer
  770 829-8245                          224 405-5154
  phyllis.mcneill@globalpay.com         lesliebeyer@discoverfinancial.com