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), 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(R) and
MasterCard(R) 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
-0- 09/13/1999
/CONTACT: media, Terrie O'Hanlon, 678-375-1452, email,
tohanlon@checkfree.com , or investor, Tina Moore, 678-375-1278, email,
tmoore@checkfree.com , both of CheckFree Corporation, or Mary Lynn Stevens of
Pentagon FCU, 703-838-1239, or Anne Luse of The Golden 1, 916-732-2865, email,
aluse@golden1.com /
/Web site: golden1.com /
/Web site: checkfree.com /
(CKFR) |
