Fifth Third Processing Solutions Earns Visa(R) Service Quality Award

CINCINNATI, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For the 12th consecutive year, Visa has awarded Fifth Third Processing Solutions one of its prestigious Visa Service Quality Performance Awards. Based on exceptional card operations performance demonstrated in calendar year 2006, Fifth Third earned top honors for Lowest Chargeback-to-Sales Ratio.

The Lowest Chargeback-to-Sales Ratio category reflects an acquirer's ability to effectively educate its merchant customers on Visa's acceptance procedures designed to ensure that transactions are properly processed at the point of sale. Acquirers who educate and monitor their merchants help reduce unnecessary and costly chargebacks and improve performance in this important customer service area.

"Given the challenges of the current economic and competitive landscape to the payment service industry, service quality is more important than ever," said Bruce McElhinney, executive vice president, Visa USA Client Services. "This is the 12th consecutive year Fifth Third has won a Visa Service Quality Performance Award and it also marks Fifth Third's eleventh win for lowest chargeback-to-sales ratio. We congratulate Fifth Third for its many years of success."

"This recognition speaks to the talent of our back-office team, who places a high priority on working with our merchant customers to reduce the number of exception items and the manual effort needed to research and resolve cardholder inquirers," said Charles Drucker, president, Fifth Third Processing Solutions. "We are thrilled to receive this honor and look forward to continued accomplishments and success."

Visa established the Service Quality Performance Awards Program in 1992 to recognize exceptional card operations performance by card issuers and acquiring members. The awards acknowledge consistent, superior performance and emphasize continued service and quality improvement. Visa recognizes its card issuing, card acquiring and processing members who achieve and exceed the highest performance standards in operational areas affecting cardholders and merchants. Visa has consistently recognized Fifth Third Processing Solutions for its excellent processing performance since 1995.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions processes over 21 billion ATM and POS transactions per year for more than 2,300 financial institutions and over 143,947 retail locations worldwide, including the Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN), First Niagara Financial Group, Sovereign Bank, The Kroger Co., AutoZone, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nordstrom, Inc. and The Finish Line. Annually, Fifth Third processes $148.1 billion in credit card sales. According to The Nilson Report (March 2007), Fifth Third Bank is the fourth largest bankcard acquirer.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Company has $99.8 billion in assets, operates 18 affiliates with 1,166 full-service Banking Centers, including 107 Bank Mart(R) locations open seven days a week inside select grocery stores and 2,127 ATMs in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Missouri. Fifth Third operates five main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending, Investment Advisors and Fifth Third Processing Solutions. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of March 31, 2007, has $225 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $34 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at http://www.53.com/. Fifth Third's common stock is traded through the NASDAQ(R) National Global Select Market System under the symbol "FITB."