Thursday, February 16, 2006

PBT Expands into Financial Services


TWO FINANCIAL SERVICES EXPERTS JOIN PAY BY TOUCH
Drew Hyatt and Elizabeth Yata join PBT to manage company's new financial services offerings

SAN FRANCISCO, February 15, 2006 — Pay By Touch, the global leader of biometric authentication, rewards marketing, and payment solutions, today announced plans to expand its financial services offerings with the addition of two new industry experts.

Drew Hyatt, senior vice president, and Elizabeth Yata, vice president and group product manager, will lead Pay By Touch's banking and credit authorization services. Hyatt will kick off this new initiative during the Pre-Paid Card Expo, where he will speak during an Emerging Card Technologies Workshop at 1 p.m. on Feb. 15 in Orlando, Fla.

Hyatt and Yata will apply their considerable experience to the goal of increasing adoption of Pay By Touch's biometric authentication technology to the benefit of consumers and institutions in the financial industry.

Under their leadership, Pay By Touch will begin offering banks the ability to instantly verify customer identity with a quick finger scan - the industry's most advanced safeguard against identity theft. The Pay By Touch service also protects financial institutions from the billions they spend in transaction and new account fraud, two of the industry's biggest pain points.

"Pay By Touch's biometric authentication technology will bring great value to the banking community, which spent about $47 billion on fraud last year alone," said John Rogers, founder, chairman, and CEO of Pay By Touch. "Drew's and Elizabeth's expertise in banking and fraud protection will bring significant value to Pay By Touch as we move into a market desperate for an effective anti-fraud solution.

"Hyatt brings to Pay By Touch more than 15 years of financial services experience. He has held several executive-level positions, including president of HNC Software Financial Solutions Group, a leader in credit card fraud detection, and senior vice president and corporate officer of Digital Insight, a leading on-line banking application service provider.

Hyatt has also developed patents in this area. He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Yata brings to Pay By touch more than 20 years of financial services experience. She began her career in the International Division of Crocker National Bank and spent nearly ten years at Bank of America, holding numerous product management positions including vice president and group product manager for both retail and wholesale banking services. Prior to Bank of America, Yata spent nine years in various roles at Visa U.S.A., including senior vice president of service management, where she was responsible for defining and managing processing solutions for business initiatives. Yata earned a bachelor's degree in management from Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.