In November 1993, First National Bank of Omaha, one of the oldest chartered banks, fully acquired Retriever Payment Systems, making Retriever a wholly owned subsidiary with an ISO strategy in mind. Through this partnership, Retriever gained access to vital industry resources, allowing for substantial expansion throughout the company.

Our alliance with First National Bank of Omaha strengthened our ability to offer exceptional service and viable solutions to our 1,600 sales representative and nearly 70,000 merchants, an accomplishment that has been key to Retriever's success.

Through this success, Retriever management and its equity partner Winward Capital was able to gain greater flexibility with a leveraged 80% buyout from FNBO in 2001. At that time, Retriever had 62,227 merchants. This buyout afforded opportunities for Retriever sales groups, our customers, to continue to become larger and more successful.

In 2002 alone, Retriever grew to over 80,000 merchant locations, processing $5.6 billion in merchant volume and $70 million in merchant transactions. To date, Retriever is the largest Independent Sales Organization in the industry. We have 2,020 Independent Sales Representatives and are continually growing.