CEZ 's Clients Can Now Pay Their Bills Through Citi's UniKasa

Citibank Romania announced today that it has expanded its UniKasa cash payment service by  partnering with CEZ (former Electrica Oltenia), one of the biggest suppliers and distributors of electric energy in the Romanian market. As a result of this partnership, CEZ's 1.4 million clients can now pay their bills conveniently and quickly in any of the 20 UniKasa centers located in Agip stations in Craiova, Targu Jiu, Targoviste, Pitesti, Bucharest and Timisoara.

"During the first stage, this partnership will utilize part of UniKasa's network potential - the centers located in Agip gas stations, available 24 hours per day. It is our intention to provide clients of CEZ (former Electrica Oltenia) with the possibility of paying their bills though our entire UniKasa network, including the centers in DOMO stores, by the end of this year". "UniKasa's network expansion, by partnerships with significant retailers, and the extension of the bill types which can be paid through UniKasa are the main coordinates of our <<payment center>> concept expansion strategy", says Cristela Georgescu, Deputy General Manager, Citibank Romania.

"This step confirms once again CEZ's commitment to consistently provide its clients with various modern and effective payment solutions, and to continually improve the service offering. Our clients will keep on discovering and using new modern payment methods, including banking transfer or direct debit", says Martin Pacovsky, CFO, CEZ Romania.

Citi's UniKasa cash payment service presently offers over 30 locations throughout the country - in 20 Agip gas stations and 13 DOMO stores. By the end of 2007, the service is planned to be expanded to 40 DOMO stores.

UniKasa allows individuals to pay CEZ (former Electrica Oltenia), Vodafone, Avon, Romtelecom, Electrica (Bucuresti and Ilfov) and Zapp bills in a convenient and simple manner. The payer simply has to show the invoice to the UniKasa cashier. The cashier then scans the invoice's bar code, the payment is registered in the system and confirmed through a receipt and the payer pays in cash.  The UniKasa system is free of charge, convenient, as it is available during the extended hours of the retail locations, and quicker than other payment methods.  UniKasa is available to anyone and the payer does not need to be a Citi client.

Citi launched UniKasa in 2004, and Romania was the second country, after Poland, where Citi rolled out this service.  UniKasa is Citi Romania's second initiative involving the development of cash payment centers.  In 2000, Citi launched Easy Payments, an integrated, automatic cash payment solution to pay suppliers from the public utilities sector, insurance, and telecom industries.  This system allows people to pay their current bills at Citibank Easy Payments machines at any time on any day of the week.