Huge News. Integrion Announcement!
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Integrion and CheckFree Announce 10-Year Strategic
Alliance
Agreement Will Provide the Industry with Complete Electronic Banking,
Billing and Payment Solution Based on Gold Message Standard
ATLANTA, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrion Financial Network and CheckFree
Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR) announced today a 10-year processing partnership to
provide financial institutions with a fully integrated, end-to-end, cost
effective electronic billing and payment processing service employing
Integrion's Gold Message Standard for Electronic Commerce, its Interactive
Financial Services (IFS) platform and CheckFree's processing infrastructure.
In addition, the two companies will work with IBM, Integrion's primary
technology partner, to fully integrate Integrion's IFS banking platform with
electronic billing and payment, effectively establishing the next generation
banking, billing and payment infrastructure for the financial services
industry.
Under the terms of the agreement:
-- CheckFree and Integrion will continue to develop and support their
respective and rapidly growing customer bases.
-- CheckFree will become the primary supplier of back-end electronic
billing and payment processing services to Integrion customers.
Integrion and CheckFree will enter into an outsourcing agreement for
CheckFree to manage Integrion's Herndon Operation.
-- Integrion's IFS platform will become CheckFree's preferred means for
routing transactions.
-- Integrion's Gold Message Standard will be the technical specification
of choice for the system. Connections to banks as well as connections
from Integrion to CheckFree will be based on this specification.
-- CheckFree, Integrion and IBM will jointly design and develop a next
generation banking, bill payment and presentment platform based on
IFS/Gold and CheckFree's processing engine.
-- Integrion will acquire 10-year warrants exercisable at 20-15/16 for
10 million shares of CheckFree Corporation; 3 million that vest within
60 days and 7 million to be vested upon achievement of certain
performance targets. Any shares obtained by Integrion upon exercise of
the warrants will be subject to transfer restrictions. With the
commitment from Integrion and adoption of electronic commerce in
non-Integrion financial institutions, management believes that 12 to
15% of U.S. households will be using online, banking and electronic
billing and payment services before the warrants fully vest. Management
believes this ensures that Integrion, CheckFree and the entire
financial institution community are driving towards a penetration rate
over the next four years that will strongly benefit CheckFree and its
shareholders as well as the financial institution community.
Additional financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. The
strategic alliance is subject to certain conditions and is expected to close
in 1Q 1998.
The alliance creates substantial synergies for the two organizations by
combining their core competencies. Integrion will contribute a secure,
industrial strength middleware platform, allowing universal connectivity
between multiple access devices and bank legacy systems. CheckFree will
contribute its industry-leading electronic billing and payment services.
Integrion and CheckFree also share common customers who will benefit from the
venture. The alliance, therefore, will strengthen the relationships that
Integrion and CheckFree have with their respective customer bases.
"As is true for any electronic commerce activity, electronic billing and
payment processing is a business that requires scale and quality at each point
along the transaction path. CheckFree clearly is the leader in that
processing," said William M. Fenimore Jr., managing director of Integrion.
"This alliance ensures that any bank utilizing the Integrion solution will get
the highest quality service, at the lowest processing cost available. We
expect to achieve economies of scale that will be difficult to duplicate."
Fenimore also noted the appropriateness of the banking industry's
leadership in delivering electronic commerce, to consumers and organizations.
"Consumers expect to get electronic financial services from their bank,
and our agreement today enables banks to fulfill that expectation without the
risk of disintermediation." Fenimore said, "Integrion and CheckFree are
committed to provided solutions that are bank-owned and bank-controlled."
"Integrion embodies the role of the bank as the customer's trusted agent
in financial service delivery," said Pete Kight, Chairman and CEO of
CheckFree. "We are very proud to stand behind the banks with world class
processing that enables the highest quality electronic and payment services in
the marketplace. Customers are already enjoying the benefits of visiting
their banks on their own time, and completing their financial decisions with
the click of a mouse. We believe strongly that this alliance will accelerate
the adoption of electronic commerce services."
About Integrion Financial Network
Integrion Financial Network provides interactive banking and electronic
commerce solutions to financial institutions. Through the Interactive
Financial Services (IFS) platform, Integrion offers financial institutions a
network through which electronic transactions flow from multiple consumer
access points to a bank's host system and/or processor. Integrion's operating
philosophy allows banks to determine the manner and format in which home
banking and electronic commerce services are offered, ensuring consistency
with the bank's full range of services, effective branding by the bank and
maximum customer benefit.
The owners of Integrion are ABN AMRO North America, Bank One, Bank of
America, Barnett Bank, Citibank, Comerica, First Chicago NBD, First Union
National Bank, Fleet Financial, IBM, KeyCorp, Mellon Bank, Michigan National
Bank, NationsBank, Norwest, PNC Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, US Bancorp, Visa
U.S.A and Washington Mutual, Inc. Additional information about Integrion can
be found on the Internet at www.integrion.net.
About CheckFree Corp.
Founded in 1981, CheckFree Corporation (www.checkfree.com) is the leading
provider of electronic commerce services, software and related products for
more than 2 million consumers, 1,000 businesses and 850 financial
institutions. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable
its members to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based
recurring financial transactions and conduct secure transactions on the
Internet.
Certain of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking
statements, including the statements regarding the expected consummation of
the strategic alliance agreement, the development of an integrated electronic
billing and payment processing system, and the expected benefits of the
alliance. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties,
including without limitation, the satisfaction or waiver of conditions to the
closing of the strategic alliance, the ability of the parties to develop an
integrated system as contemplated, the expected growth in U.S. households
using online banking and electronic billing and payment services, and the
ability of the parties to realize the expected synergies of the alliance. In
addition, the business prospects of CheckFree are subject to various risks and
uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's reports filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Report on Form
10-K for the year ended June 30, 1997. 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.
SOURCE CheckFree Corporation
-0- 10/29/97
/CONTACT: Grant Evans of Al Paul Lefton Co., 215-351-4210, or
grantevans@lefton.com ; or Matt Lewis of CheckFree Corporation, 770-734-3404,
or mlewis@checkfree.com /
/Web site: checkfree.com and integrion.net /
(CKFR) |
