Global Payment Systems, a joint company of National Data Corporation (NYSE: NDC) and MasterCard International, today announced the election of David K. Hunt to the position of president and chief executive officer. He has also been elected a member of Global's Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Global, Hunt was president and chief executive officer of AT&T; Universal Card Services in Jacksonville, Florida. Before that he was senior executive vice president of Signet Banking Corporation in Richmond, VA. He also served as a member of the U.S. Region Board of Directors at MasterCard International.

At AT&T; he was responsible for all aspects of strategy and operations of AT&T;'s credit card operation, which is among the U.S.'s largest in terms of cardholder base and representation. His responsibilities at Signet included various retail banking activities including the credit card issuing and merchant acquiring activities.

Commenting on the appointment, Robert A. Yellowlees, chairman of the board of both NDC and Global Payment Systems, said, "We are enthusiastic about David's decision to assume the leadership of Global. He is a proven executive with extensive experience in the payment systems and banking industries. His business qualifications are highly respected in the industry. He brings to our customers, business partners and employees, the qualities of excellence that are the standards by which we judge ourselves."

Gene Lockhart, chief executive officer of MasterCard International, stated, "I have known David for a number of years and have a great deal of respect for his management style and leadership qualities. I can't think of anyone better suited for this unique opportunity represented by Global Payment Systems. This is very good news for our members and the payment system industry."

Hunt, who is married and has a son and two daughters, will assume his new duties the first of the new year at Global's Atlanta headquarters.

Global Payment Systems is a worldwide provider of value-added payment systems products and services.

National data Corporation is a leading provider of information systems and services for the health care and payment systems markets.

MasterCard International, a payments company with one of the world's most recognized brands, is dedicated to helping more than 22,000 financial institutions around the world offer consumers a variety of payment options. MasterCard remains focused on helping shape the future of money by expanding acceptance of its global brands (MasterCard(R), Maestro(R) and Cirrus(R), the world's largest ATM network) and maintaining reliable, secure networks facilitating global value exchange. MasterCard has nearly 370 million credit and debit cards that are, accepted at more than 13 million acceptance locations worldwide. In 1995, gross dollar volume generated was almost $500 billion. MasterCard can be reached through its World Wide Web site at http://www.mastercard.com.