Top Credit Unions Team Up With CheckFree to Offer Electronic Billing and Payment
Includes Two of the Nation's Largest to Implement CheckFree's EBP Service
ATLANTA, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR - news), Alexandria, VA-based Pentagon Federal Credit Union and Sacramento-based The Golden 1 Credit Union today announced their joint efforts to provide Internet-based electronic billing and payment (EBP) to Pentagon Federal and Golden 1 members.
Both Pentagon Federal and The Golden 1 are among the nation's largest credit unions. Pentagon Federal, with more than $3 billion in assets, is the third largest credit union in the United States, and serves more than 400,000 Army and Air Force professionals and their families worldwide. The Golden 1 is the largest credit union in California, with more than $2 billion in assets and 54 offices throughout the state.
The new partnerships now link CheckFree-supported EBP with four of the seven largest credit unions in the country. Along with Pentagon Federal, The Golden 1 and Navy Federal Credit Union, CheckFree is also currently working with 46 U.S. credit unions offering EBP, including:
Currently providing CheckFree Soon to offer CheckFree
E-Bill(TM) E-Bill(TM)
Broward County Schools Credit Union AEA Credit Union
Hewlett-Packard Employees Credit Union Hughes Aircraft Employee
Kaiser Permanente Employees Federal Credit Union
Credit Union
MacDill Federal Credit Union Lockheed Federal Credit Union
San Diego County Credit Union Pacific IBM Credit Union
Security Services Federal Credit Union Schools Federal Credit Union
Stanford Federal Credit Union Tinker Federal Credit Union
Symitar Systems (Deere, Delta, Riverside
City, Utah First and Vandenburg)
To receive and pay their monthly bills via the World Wide Web, credit union members simply complete the online enrollment at their credit union Web site, and then they can view and pay their monthly bills with the click of a mouse.
''As one of the strongest and most comprehensive credit unions in the country, Pentagon Federal is excited to be among the first to implement CheckFree E-Bill,'' said Ron Snellings, president and CEO of Pentagon Federal Credit Union. ''It is our job to ensure that our members have access to the latest technology for conducting their finances, and we believe EBP is the type of service they will quickly adopt.''
Anne Luse, vice president of the Electronic Services Division of The Golden 1, added, ''Not only is EBP the wave of the future for financial services; offering this option to our members will help them eliminate the hassles associated with paper-based bill payment.''
Credit union members will have access to a rapidly growing number of billers who have signed multi-year contracts with CheckFree since it became the first to launch EBP in 1997. These billers include: ALLTEL Mortgage, Ameren (Union Electric), American Electric Power, AT&T, Avista Utilities, BellSouth, billserv.com , Chase Credit Card, Chase Mortgage, Columbia Gas of Ohio, Consumers Energy, Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Cox Communications, CUNA Mutual Group, Florida Power & Light, GTE (Long Distance), Hawaiian Electric, Homeside Lending, Illinois Power, International Billing Services, MCI WorldCom, Nevada Power, Northeast Utilities, NICOR, PGE, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Small Business Administration, Southern California Edison, Total System Services, Inc. and Virginia Power.
Matt Lewis, executive vice president of Electronic Commerce Product Management and Marketing for CheckFree said, ''Credit unions play an important role in the government and company-based financial services industry and will continue to do so for a long time to come. We are happy to work with each of these credit unions behind-the-scenes to provide their members with a one-stop scenario for receiving and paying their monthly bills.''
About Pentagon Federal Credit Union
Pentagon Federal Credit Union was formed on March 25, 1935. As the third largest credit union in the U.S. and the largest serving the Army, Air Force and Department of Defense communities, Pentagon Federal Credit Union has more than 400,000 members and assets exceeding $3.0 billion. Pentagon Federal's strategy has always been to serve members, no matter where their careers take them. The credit union was given one of the first commercial toll-free numbers in the 1960s and in 1993 began offering members toll-free service from any onbase Class A Defense Switch Network (DSN) phone. In September 1998, the credit union rolled out 24-hour, seven-days-a-week phone service with live member representatives. Along with their growing Internet account access service and the addition of Web bill payment with CheckFree, they are in the forefront of offering anytime, anywhere service to members.
About The Golden 1 Federal Credit Union
The Golden 1 Federal Credit Union (www.golden1.com ) is the seventh largest credit union in the U.S. and the largest credit union in California, with more than $2 billion in assets and 54 offices throughout the state of California. The Golden 1 offers a full line of consumer financial products and services that include the following: Savings Accounts, Checking Accounts, Term Share Certificates, Individual Retirement Accounts, VISA® and MasterCard® credit cards, 100 percent financing on new and used car loans, and real estate loans.
About CheckFree
Founded in 1981, CheckFree (www.checkfree.com ), the operating subsidiary of CheckFree Holdings Corp., is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services, software and related products. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable nearly three million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or electronically through a variety of bill aggregation points, including banks, brokerage firms, portals and interactive content sites on the Internet, and personal financial management (PFM) software.
CheckFree's range of services and products are focused on enabling customers to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial transactions and conduct secure Internet transactions. After more than a year of beta testing, CheckFree launched the nation's first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution, CheckFree E-Bill, in March of 1997. Today, the Company has multi-year contracts with more than 60 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through the CheckFree distribution network.
Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1998, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 1999, Form 8-K filed May 25, 1999 and the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 (No. 333-79695) filed June 1, 1999, as amended June 15, 1999. One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: CheckFree Corporation
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