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Technology Stocks : CheckFree (CKFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chirodoc who wrote (4331)	5/20/1998 8:24:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 8545

SAN FRANCISCO and ATLANTA (May 20, 1998) -- Visa U.S.A. and CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) today announced plans to form a joint venture that will create the next generation electronic bill payment and remittance infrastructure for the nation's financial institutions and billers. Combining the efficient funds transfer services of Visa's ePay electronic debit and settlement product with CheckFree's proven remittance data services, the new joint venture will enable financial institutions to offer their customers an end-to-end, fully electronic billing and payment capability built on the world's most advanced payment infrastructure. "Our joint venture with CheckFree enables Visa to combine its core strengths in the electronic payments realm with the resources of the leading electronic bill payments processor," said William E. Stewart, executive vice president of Visa U.S.A. "The result is a superb payment infrastructure that supports our member financial institutions' home banking and remittance concentration services and the needs of their customers." "This is a huge win for America's financial institutions, billers, and ultimately consumers," said Peter J. Kight, chairman and CEO of CheckFree. "It absolutely delivers on the power and efficiency of electronic payment processing - and it's built for financial institutions, billers and consumers and backed by the payments expertise that Visa delivers. This alliance marks the beginning of a new era as we move to all-electronic delivery and settlement for electronic bill payments and even small business and consumer-to-consumer payments." "It's important to note that this open infrastructure is designed to support the most cost-efficient and effective delivery of electronic billing and payment," said Kight. "To that end, the system will support transactions from any electronic billing sources, including other electronic bill presentment services companies. We believe that making electronic payment and settlement available to all financial institutions for their customers' transactions will lower costs and speed the advancement and growth of the entire electronic banking marketplace. That's good for consumers, financial institutions and billers." Visa and CheckFree are already working together to build this infrastructure, which will enable financial institutions and billers nationwide to utilize state-of-the-art, all-electronic payment transactions. The joint venture infrastructure will work seamlessly with all major front-ends being used by financial institutions, including the Integrion Financial Network's IFS platform. Integrion played a key role in bringing together Visa (an owner of Integrion) and CheckFree (Integrion's strategic partner for bill presentment and payment processing). Integrion is an alliance between 17 of the nation's largest financial institutions, IBM and Visa U.S.A., collectively representing more than 75 percent of the nation's banking households. "This is a powerful alliance that will bring tremendous benefit to Integrion banks," said William M. Fenimore, Jr., CEO and managing director of Integrion Financial Network. "Integrion is looking forward to working with both CheckFree and Visa to enable banks to offer compelling, integrated electronic financial services to their customers." Visa will also join Integrion in leveraging CheckFree's E-Bill solution. "It's important to our members and to the billing community that CheckFree has created open solutions that use the banking infrastructure for distribution and payment of bills," said Stewart. "We will work closely with CheckFree and Integrion to make E-Bill an excellent choice for our members." For billers, the joint venture's funds connectivity provided by Visa's ePay product, coupled with the data remittance capabilities of CheckFree, is expected to dramatically increase the number of consumer bill payments reaching billers electronically. CheckFree and Visa's electronic two-way bill presentment and payment capabilities are designed to deliver significant savings for billers, given the reduction of printing, distribution and processing of paper-based bills and payments. Access to the new joint venture infrastructure is expected to be available to financial institutions and billers by December of this year. Visa will provide development of advanced electronic debit and settlement functionality to the joint venture while CheckFree will provide complete remittance processing. All existing connectivity to CheckFree services, either through Integrion or other front-ends, will be seamlessly enhanced to take advantage of the new infrastructure's functionality. About Visa Visa is the leading card brand and the largest consumer payment system worldwide. It plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions, their cardholders, and the global economy. Visa is the only consumer payment system to facilitate $1 trillion worth of purchases of goods and services in a fiscal year. Visa's nearly 600 million cards are accepted at more than 14 million worldwide locations, including more than 400,000 ATMs in the Visa/PLUS Global ATM Network. Visa's Internet address is www.visa.com. About CheckFree Founded in 1981, CheckFree Corporation (www.checkfree.com) is the leading provider of electronic commerce services, software and related products for more than 2.4 million consumers, 1,000 businesses and 850 financial institutions. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable its customers to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial transactions and conduct secure transactions on the Internet. CheckFree currently processes more than 50 percent of its payment transactions electronically. The new joint venture infrastructure will enable that percentage to climb as high as 85 percent, given the combined resources of the two organizations. ### E-mail questions or comments to: corporate_communications@atl.checkfree.com