Wire Card AG continues to record high growth – enlarged Board of Management

Report on 3rd quarter of 2005 – sales revenues and earnings ex-ceeding expectations – positive outlook for 2006

Berlin, Munich/Grasbrunn, November 21, 2005 - Wire Card AG, one of the leading European providers of payment systems, risk management and communications services, which is listed on the Prime Standard of the Frank-furt Stock Exchange, continued its successful growth trend of the first quar-ters. "Business in the third quarter turned out even better than we had antici-pated, once again confirming our positive expectations for fiscal 2005 as a whole", says Dr. Markus Braun, CEO of Wire Card AG.

Sales revenues and earnings

In order to ensure optimum comparability of current business trends in rela-tion to the corresponding period under review of the previous year, the fig-ures for the third quarter of 2005 are compared with those of the same busi-ness divisions of the previous year, even though these were not yet part of the Group at the time.

In the third quarter of 2005, Wire Card AG boosted Group sales revenues by 87% year-on-year, from 8.1 million to 15.2 million euros. Q3 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved by 42% year-on-year, from 2.1 million to 3.0 million euros.

The company's share price trend reflects the successful business develop-ment of Wire Card AG: on September 27, 2005, its stocks were trading at a new 52-week high of EUR 4.25, up by more than 56% compared with the quo-tation of July 1, 2005.

Enlarged Board of Management

Following a Supervisory Board resolution of November 17, 2005, Mr. Burkhard Ley (46) was appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer as of January 1, 2006, for a period of three years. In the course of his profes-sional career, spanning more than two decades, Burkhard Ley (who holds a German degree in business administration) worked in all key specialist de-partments at a savings bank, a department of the German central bank and at a private banking institution, most recently as Director (1988-2000) of Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie KGaA. Thanks to his entrepreneurial activities as a Board member of Kirch New Media AG in the Finance division (2000-2001) and vari-ous strategic consultancy mandates and holdings (as of 2002), also in coop-eration with private banks and private equity companies in various fields of business, Burkhard Ley managed to acquire in-depth industry know-how.

Dr. Markus Braun, CEO of Wire Card AG: "We are very pleased to have signed up Mr. Burkhard Ley as Chief Financial Officer for our company. He will make a decisive contribution to further extending the financial services division of Wire Card AG and will be responsible for running all staff deparments in the finance sector and administration."

Acquisition of XCOM Bank concluded

What was of decisive strategic importance was the announced takeover of XCOM Bank AG on September 8, 2005. Studies by the Federal Supervisory Authority for Financial Services (German acronym: BaFin) and the Prüfungs-verband deutscher Banken e.V., an auditing association of German banks, gave rise to no objections, which means that XCOM Bank can be consolidated as part of the Wire Card Group as of January 1, 2006.

The acquisition of XCOM Bank will enable Wire Card AG to extend the existing portfolio of products and services along the value-added chain.

Outlook

The Board of Management of Wire Card AG assumes that the targeted in-crease of 30 per cent in sales revenues and EBIT for fiscal 2005 will be ex-ceeded.

This assumption is based on the development in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (which exceeded expectations) and the fact the fourth quarter tends to be strongest on sales in the EPRM and CCS business divi-sions as a rule due to seasonal factors. As regards the economies of scale generated by additional growth and the increased value-added depth following the acquisition of XCOM Bank, the company anticipates a substantial surge in profitability for fiscal 2006.

About Wire Card AG:

Wire Card AG is one of the leading European providers of payment systems, risk management and communications services. The company gives its cus-tomers a wide range of payment options (credit card, direct debit, transfer, invoice, cash in advance, debit cards) along with CLICK2PAY as an alternative Internet payment system. The software platform is being used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe.
(ISIN DE0007472060)

Press Release

Press contacts:
Iris Stöckl, Wire Card AG, Tel. +49-89 4424 2034, iris.stoeckl@wirecard.com Dr. Kay Baden, Kirchhoff Consult AG, Tel. +49-40 609 186 39, baden@kirchhoff.de