ec-Finance.com

TRADEEASY OFFERS ITS CUSTOMERS ec-FINANCE'S NEW WEB-BASED FINANCING ALTERNATIVE

FASTLC adds online Letter of Credit capability allowing B2B buyers and sellers to settle transactions efficiently and securely

New York, NY, October 5, 2000 - ec-Finance announced today that it will provide Tradeeasy and its customers FASTLC ™, the first online Letter of Credit (LC) product for B2B exchanges. This Web-based payment option allows buyers and sellers on B2B exchanges to complete financing of their transactions online in an efficient and secure environment.

Danny Yip, chief executive officer of Tradeeasy, said: "With our extensive experience in international trade and proven track record, Tradeeasy believes our strategic alliance with ec-Finance will give our customers around the world a major competitive edge. This alliance also helps achieve our corporate mission to provide a total i-trade solution for international traders to facilitate their business on the Internet."

FASTLC works with its bank payment partners to provide B2B exchanges and their customers the ability to use the bank's long accepted role as a trusted third-party in international trade transactions. FASTLC greatly facilitates the trade process by acquiring transaction information and payment instructions from B2B sites and passing the transaction to one of its bank payment partners for execution. B2B customers select the bank they wish to execute the LC from the roster of bank payment partners. The collection and transfer of data occurs completely within a frame on the B2B site, ensuring the site retains the customer at all times.

B.J. Handal, chief executive officer of ec-Finance, said: "With Tradeeasy's seven years of experience and sound reputation in the B2B market, we were eager to partner with them and offer FASTLC to their customers. This agreement provides Tradeeasy's 70,000 seller and buyer members a safe and efficient Web-based payment system on a global basis

LCs are the most popular payment instrument for international trade because they provide significant protection for both the buyer and the seller, ensuring payment if terms specified in the LC are met. LCs do not pose limitations common to escrow accounts or credit cards.

About Tradeeasy
Tradeeasy's total i-trade solutions give international traders, through support of ec-Finance, an unprecedented payment service that is secure, efficient, cost-effective and reliable.

Tradeeasy is committed to assisting our SME members to conduct international trade via the Internet. As a business-to-business i-trade specialist since 1993, Tradeeasy is the world's leading total i-trade solutions provider for international traders. Headquartered in Hong Kong with 13 offices located in the U.S., Europe & Greater China, the company has more than 500 employees worldwide serving over 10,000 sellers and 60,000 buyers in international trade. Information on over 200,000 products is listed on tradeeasy.com which generates an average of 50,000 trade leads every month.

Tradeeasy has a strong network of business and technology partners including ec-Finance, FedEx, CCT Telecom, HKNet, Intertek Testing Services (ITS), Rebound, Jardine Logistics, Dimerco, GE Capital, LegalStudio, SGS, Sun Microsystems and AsiaTravelMart. For more information please visit www.Tradeeasy.com.

About ec-Finance
ec-Finance provides Internet-based Letter of Credit (LC) products for B2B exchanges and banks that represent significant improvements over existing LC products. With ec-LC™, the core technology system, ec-Finance enables buyers to apply for LCs online, buyers and sellers to initiate and iteratively negotiate amendment and discrepancy requests online, and all supply chain participants to monitor the status of the LC. ec-LC ensures that all participants in the LC process - including buyers, sellers and issuing and advising banks - are able to streamline the LC process by organizing critical information into a Web-enabled, queriable database - eliminating what was once a highly fragmented process to execute and track applications, amendments, discrepancies and approvals. FASTLC provides for acquisition of LCs from B2B exchanges which are executed by its bank payment partners. For more information please visit www.ec-Finance.com.

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