Barclaycard Contactless Technology Rolls out Across Co-Operative Stores Nationwide

NORTHAMPTON, England, July 23, 2010 - Barclaycard joins forces with the Co-operative Food as it becomes the
UK's first major grocery retailer to introduce contactless payment in its
stores nationwide.

The contactless (www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/contactless/)
roll-out will begin with a pilot in 100 Co-operative food stores next year
after an agreement was signed with Barclaycard in partnership with Visa. If
the pilot is successful, The Co-operative will roll out the terminals to the
majority of its food stores in time for the 2012 Olympics, which is being
billed as a contactless event, where visitors are expected to experience the
full convenience of contactless payment on transport, tickets and other low
value purchases.

Contactless payment allows customers to make purchases of GBP15 or less,
without the need to enter a PIN or insert their card into a payment terminal.
Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the secure
transaction uses the tried and tested Chip and PIN technology to
automatically add the purchase to the customer's credit credit card
(www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/index.html) or debit it from
their current account.

Contactless payment, which is already commonplace and proving popular in
the USA and Asia, is ideal for transactions where speed is essential,
especially at supermarkets and petrol stations. Roll-out of contactless
payment in the UK began in 2007 and there are now over nine million
contactless enabled cards in circulation.

Sean Toal, commercial director, Food Retail, The Co-operative Group,
said: "This is a great opportunity for The Co-operative to work in
partnership with Barclaycard to become the first major food retailer in the
UK to roll-out this unique payment method. It has received an excellent
reception from both customers and retailers where it has been launched
overseas and is ideal for our store portfolio."

Mark Hale, director of Food IS, The Co-operative Group, added:
"Contactless payment has huge benefits for our customers. In essence, this
innovative technology will mean increased customer choice and faster
transaction speed, which will vastly improve the customer experience."

Contactless payment will also increase throughput as research has shown
that a large number of customers will walk out of a shop if they see an
excessive queue length.

Stuart Neal, head of UK Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, said: "We're
absolutely delighted that The Co-operative is joining forces with Barclaycard
to roll out contactless payments across all of its stores. For a household
name such as The Co-operative to commit to the technology really shows that
it is the future of payments, and we are looking forward to working with them
to further enhance the in-store experience for their customers."

Notes to Editors:

About Barclaycard:

Barclaycard, part of Barclays Global Retail Banking division, is a
leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers and
businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access low interest
rate credit cards (
www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/cards/gold/index.html), build
credit (www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/cards/initial/index.html)
and provides its own customer rewards scheme (
www.barclaycard.co.uk/freedom/) .

Barclays and Barclaycard are leading the way in introducing contactless
and there are now over eight million contactless-enabled Barclaycards and
Barclays debit cards, helping retailers reduce queuing and cut the cost of
card transactions. In line with its history of providing customers with
innovative payment forms, Barclaycard also intends to make payments by mobile
phone available to the mass market by 2012.

Barclays and Barclaycard are the leading providers of contactless
terminals in the UK with 25,000 live and accepting payment throughout the
country for retailers including Pret A Manger, Subway, Yo! Sushi and EAT.

About The Co-operative Group

The Co-operative Group stands apart from other major retailers in the UK
as a business which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by
more than five million consumers. With core interests in food, financial
services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of
GBP14 billion, employs 123,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading
outlets handling more than 20 million weekly transactions.

    For further information please contact:

    Andrew Bond
    Barclaycard Press Office
    Barclaycard
    1234 Pavilion Drive
    Northampton
    NN4 7SG
    +44(0)1604-25-1229
    www.barclaycard.co.uk

For further information please contact: Andrew Bond, Barclaycard Press Office, Barclaycard, 1234 Pavilion Drive, Northampton, NN4 7SG, +44(0)1604-25-1229