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Media Relations:
Laurinda Wilson
(770) 840-1608
lwilson@checkfree.com
Investor Relations:
Terrie O'Hanlon
(770) 840-1452
tohanlon@checkfree.com
CheckFree Rolls Out First Large-Scale System Support for OFX Specification for Electronic Banking and Bill Payment
-- CheckFree's electronic payments engine now supports OFX for transactions processed on behalf of 400,000 users, making it the largest in-production OFX -compliant system in the industry --
ATLANTA (March 19, 1999) -- CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) today announced that its next-generation electronic banking and payment transaction processing engine now supports the standards specified in the currently approved Open Financial Exchange (OFX) specification.
OFX was co-developed by Intuit, Microsoft and CheckFree, and is the industry's technical standard specifying how electronic banking and bill payment transactions should be structured, which facilitates interoperability among solutions provided by different vendors who support OFX. These include personal financial management software such as Microsoft Money, Intuit's Quicken and Intuit's financial Internet portal Quicken.com, as well as electronic banking and payment software from companies such as HFN, Edify, Corillian and Security First.
CheckFree's newest transaction processing platform, "Genesis," was developed to ensure the quality and scalability required to support large-scale consumer adoption of electronic billing and payment. The system is designed to support electronic transactions from as many as one-third of all households in the United States.
Today, CheckFree's Genesis system processes electronic banking and bill payment transactions on behalf of 400,000 users who have enrolled in electronic banking and bill payment services offered through financial institutions who contract with CheckFree to process and track the transactions. By December 31, transactions from almost 3 million users supported by CheckFree services will be processed on the Genesis platform.
Pete Sinisgalli, CheckFree's chief operating officer, said, "Today is the culmination of work we began with Intuit and Microsoft more than two years ago to outline standards that would facilitate overall industry growth. Our in-production support for OFX is very important to our large financial institution customers, who want the flexibility and choice inherent in a solution that supports an open industry standard."
Randy McCoy, CheckFree's senior vice president of electronic commerce development, said, "Having an in-production system that supports OFX transactions ensures our financial institution and technology partners that our services can support transactions initiated from any OFX -compliant software they choose."
"For consumers, OFX means being able to access the same financial transaction data from a telephone, PC, or web site," McCoy added.
About CheckFree
Founded in 1981, CheckFree (www.checkfree.com), the operating subsidiary of CheckFree Holdings Corp., is the leading provider of electronic commerce services, software and related products for 2.6 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.