VocaLink Take Home Pay Index Points to Negligible Wage Rises in 2010

2009 Saw Wage Growth Plummet in the First Half of the Year and Level off at an Average of 1.7% Since July

LONDON, January 6 - The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index for December underlined the low wage
growth that is gripping the UK and is unlikely to change through 2010.
Rising by 0.5 percentage points in December to 1.9% pay growth, it was only
slightly up on the half year average of 1.7% pay growth. VocaLink predicts
this will be the long-term trend for the next two to three years as the UK
becomes accustomed to a period of austerity.

Despite some good news emerging from the High Street over the Christmas
period, the low levels of wage growth shown by the VocaLink Take Home Pay
Index supports opinion that retail spending will revert to more modest
levels. This will be driven by the fact that the virtually flat pay growth,
combined with higher taxes and increased saving, will put pressure on
consumer spending power. The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index statistics also
supports analysis that employers have chosen to prevent job losses by
restricting pay increases. By doing so, the majority of employers have the
spare capacity to accommodate increased demand as the economy sluggishly
recovers and therefore will have minimal requirement to take on extra staff.
This slack in the labour market will in turn help keep wage growth low as
there will not be the employment demand that helps fuel wage increases.

The December figures were in line with this new trend of virtually flat
growth. The 0.5 percentage point increase was due to the services sector
bouncing back from the November low of 0.9% and returning to the same sort of
levels seen in previous months at 1.7% pay growth. The manufacturing sector
remained static at 2.0% growth.

Marion King, Chief Executive Officer at VocaLink, said: "The VocaLink
Take Home Pay Index has shown low wage growth throughout 2009 and this trend
looks set to continue in 2010. With unemployment currently at its highest
level since 1995, all indications are that employers have limited intention
of increasing pay and therefore the vast majority of Britain's workforce can
expect to be on similar salaries again this time next year."

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of economics consultancy cebr, said:
"The continuing low levels of wage growth will keep inflation low and allow
the Bank of England to keep interest rates at their current level into 2011.
Furthermore, increased savings rates combined with these low levels of wage
growth will ensure that general consumer spending stays relatively low and
fairly flat as the economy slowly recovers."

VocaLink processes over 90% of UK salaries and the VocaLink Take Home Pay
Index, established in 2004, provides the most timely and accurate disposable
income data available in the UK. It is based on actual payments made to
employees on a three-month moving average compared with the same Continuation
measure a year earlier. It is affected by changes in tax rates, National
Insurance and other employer payments or deductions.

Note to editors:

The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index is an important aspect of the UK's
economic performance and one of the components that drives the Bank of
England's Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) interest rate policy due to be
announced on Thursday 7 January 2010.

Follow this link to read the full report, available from Thursday 7
January 2010 -
www.vocalink.com/en/AboutUs/Press%20room/Take%20home%20pay%20index/2009archive/Pages/2009takehomepayindexreports.aspx

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

Methodological notes

The average payment per employee is estimated from the total value of
payments and the number of transactions and then expressed as an index for
each month. The data uses a 3-month moving average to mitigate seasonal
variations and looks at the year on year increase to provide a fair economic
indicator that is also comparable with other data.

While the FTSE 350 sample is largely representative of the corporate
economy in the UK, when comparing the VocaLink take home pay index data with,
for example, government statistics, it is important to take into account the
fact that some trends, which affect relatively larger firms differently, may
have a disproportionate impact on the VocaLink take home pay index compared
with the government's official Average Earnings Index (AEI). For example, the
VocaLink index does not include the public sector so when pay trends in the
public sector are different from those in the private sector, this will
affect the VocaLink index differently from the AEI.

The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index is based on take home pay data. It is
therefore affected by changes in tax rates, changes in National Insurance
contribution rates and changes in other employer payments or deductions. It
is therefore a more representative indicator of disposable income for salary
earners than data that does not take this into account.

If you would like to receive the monthly press release please e-mail
vocalinkuk@hotwirepr.com or deborah.souter@VocaLink.com

    The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index series

    Three month average annual change
    Year                 2009                      2009
    Month                Dec  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

                         %    %   %   %   %   %   %   %   %   %   %   %   %
    VocaLink Take Home   2.9  2.7 2.4 2.0 1.6 1.1 1.3 1.3 2.0 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.9
    Pay Index
    VocaLink             2.4  1.4 1.5 1.2 1.4 1.1 1.3 0.5 0.8 0.9 1.5 2.0 2.0
    manufacturing index
    VocaLink services    3.0  3.1 2.9 2.4 1.7 1.0 1.2 1.9 2.8 2.1 1.8 0.9 1.7
    index

About the VocaLink Take Home Pay Index

The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index tracks monthly take home pay levels in
the UK. VocaLink is the processor for automated payments in the UK on behalf
of Bacs, the UK body responsible for clearing and settlement. This includes
all Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credits, which account for over 90% of
salary payments delivered into employees' bank accounts. The VocaLink Take
Home Pay Index is compiled using the data captured from the salary payments
of 100 of the FTSE 350 companies.

VocaLink works with the centre for economics and business research (cebr)
to deliver the analysis of this powerful and timely indicator of take home
pay inflation to economists, analysts and the media. It is an important
aspect of the UK's economic performance and one of the components that drives
the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) interest rate policy.
The VocaLink Take Home Pay Index is also split by broad sector group into two
sub-indices - the VocaLink Industry Index and the VocaLink Services Index.

About VocaLink

VocaLink is a specialist provider of transaction services to banks, their
corporate customers and Government departments. It processes domestic and
international automated payments and provides ATM switching solutions. On a
peak day, the VocaLink automated payment platform processes over 90 million
transactions and over half a billion in a month. Its switching platform
connects the world's busiest ATM network of over 60,000 ATMs. Its Real-Time
Payments platform provides the central infrastructure for the UK Faster
Payments service. VocaLink is working with BGC (Bankgirocentralen) to provide
outsourced processing for the majority of Sweden's domestic payments.

Having pioneered electronic payments over 40 years ago, many of the
world's top banks and their corporate customers have grown to rely on
VocaLink to meet their transaction needs. Its processing services offer banks
reach throughout the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and beyond; and are
complemented by value-added services that leverage industry expertise and
technical capabilities.

Please visit www.vocalink.com for more information

About cebr

Centre for Economics and Business Research ltd is an independent
consultancy with a reputation for sound business advice based on thorough and
insightful research.

Since 1992, cebr has been at the forefront of business and public
interest research. Providing analysis, forecasts and strategic advice to
major UK and multinational companies, financial institutions, government
departments and agencies, trade bodies and the European Commission.

cebr is recognised as one of the country's leading independent
commentators on economics and business trends. Its forecasts are used by a
diverse audience of business people, policy makers and journalists; even the
Treasury publishes its predictions for the UK economy.

For further information, please contact: Scott McLean, Hotwire, +44(0)20-7608-2500 or vocalinkuk at hotwirepr.com; Deborah Souter, VocaLink Limited, +44(0)870-920-8651 or deborah.souter at VocaLink.com