Petra Financial empower Perago Africa to deliver more accurate cross border payments to African Banks and Corporations

London, UK, February 2, 2009---Petra Financial today announced that Perago Africa headquartered in Pretoria has signed an agreement to market under their own brand Vortex Online to banks and businesses across 22 countries in Africa.

Trustlink, a division of Perago Africa, is a successful SWIFT service bureau enabling more than 70 clients to be able to generate cross border payments and SWIFT messages. By adding Petra Financial’s Vortex Online service to their capabilities, banks and corporations will be able to create and submit highly accurate SWIFT payments messages that have been validated and enriched using Vortex Online’s extensive and daily updated global world class reference data.

René Lamberts, Executive Director of Perago Africa comments: “Our customers across Africa are generating increasing volumes of cross border payments as a result of growth in trading and wealth management. Vortex Online will become a part of our SWIFT centric services that deliver real value to our clients. Making sure that payments messages are accurate at the point of initiation saves a great deal of time and cost in the process, and as a consequence enables much higher rates of STP. The benefits of an online daily updated service are enormous, and Vortex Online delivers an easy to use service that requires very little training.”

“Our agreement marks a new and significant entry into one of the fastest developing regions in the world. Africa represents a major growth region in cross border payments initiation, and working with Perago Africa in the African continent is something I am particularly proud of,” David Sinclair CEO of Petra Financial comments.

Vortex Online is Petra Financial’s service that enables banks and institutions to check, validate, and enrich SWIFT payments messages and part of the Petra Financial suite of products that deliver increased STP and reduced costs to financial services markets.

”Perago Africa has a strong and trusted position in the African market, and with a broad and dispersed clientele this type of on line service with daily updates means that Perago Africa’s clients can access accurate payments reference data that is updated every day and ensure that the highest possible error elimination and STP rates can be achieved,” John Burton, Marketing Director of Petra Financial further commented.