Check Free Receives NACHA Quality Award for ARC Processing
April 11 2005 - 1:45PM
PR Newswire (US)
Check Free Receives NACHA Quality Award for ARC Processing SAN
ANTONIO, April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- NACHA - The Electronic Payments
Association presented one of its two 2005 Kevin O'Brien ACH Quality
Award to CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR). CheckFree is being
recognized as a third-party service provider for achieving a 0.01
percent administrative return rate on ARC payments it processes.
Through software and outsourcing, CheckFree processes millions of
ARC transactions each month for national telecommunications, credit
card issuers and regional utilities. In the 4th quarter 2004,
CheckFree's administrative return rate for these ARC payments was
0.01 percent, fourteen times better than the industry average of
0.14 percent. "Quality is a critical component of any payment
product or process, and this year's NACHA Quality Awards are
excellent examples of improvements that help make check conversion
the highest quality product possible," said Elliott C. McEntee,
President and CEO of NACHA. "Congratulations to CheckFree on
winning one of this year's NACHA Quality Awards." "CheckFree's
analysis showed that minimizing administrative returns impacts
every key performance area of ARC processing, and this metric
measures success and quality for consumers, billers, ODFIs, RDFIs,
the ACH Network as a whole," said Steve Olsen, Executive Vice
President and General Manager of CheckFree's Electronic Commerce
division. "Because CheckFree's ARC processes are closely tied with
its electronic bill payment operations, this processing quality is
refined and strengthened each day to benefit consumer-based
electronic payments whether they are initiated online or through a
paper check sent to a lockbox." An "administrative return" is an
ACH debit that the RDFI cannot post to an account because it
contains an invalid or unrecognizable account number. Because
administrative returns have been a concern of billers, their
financial institutions and service providers have addressed the
issue and offered solutions. The result is that the administrative
return rate for ARC is less than half the rate of 0.31 percent for
all ACH debits. In addition, the ARC administrative return rate has
steadily declined since beginning at 0.46 percent when first
available in March 2002. "CheckFree's success with administrative
returns contributes to the overall quality of ARC payments, and
shows the industry that steps can be taken to minimize the impact
of administrative returns," said McEntee. The Kevin O'Brien ACH
Quality Award is presented annually to one or more organizations to
recognize best practices in ACH participants' efforts to maintain
and improve the quality of ACH services and the integrity and
reliability of the ACH Network. The award is named for the late
Kevin O'Brien, NACHA's Chairman in 1999-2000. The ACH Network is a
national electronic payments system used by the nation's 20,000
financial institutions and an estimated 4.8 million businesses and
145 million Americans. ACH payments include Direct Deposit of
payroll, Social Security benefits and tax refunds, Direct Payment
of consumer bills, e- checks, business-to-business payments, and
Federal tax payments. In 2004 there were more than 12 billion ACH
payments made, worth $28.7 trillion. About NACHA - The Electronic
Payments Association NACHA is the leading organization in
developing electronic solutions to improve the payments system.
NACHA represents more than 12,000 financial institutions through
direct memberships and a network of regional payments associations,
and 650 organizations through its industry councils. NACHA develops
operating rules and business practices for the Automated Clearing
House (ACH) Network and for electronic payments in the areas of
Internet commerce, electronic bill and invoice presentment and
payment (EBPP, EIPP), e- checks, financial electronic data
interchange (EDI), international payments, and electronic benefits
transfer (EBT). Visit NACHA on the Internet at
http://www.nacha.org/. About CheckFree Founded in 1981, CheckFree
Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR) provides financial electronic commerce
services and products to organizations around the world. CheckFree
Electronic Commerce solutions enable thousands of financial
services providers and billers to offer their customers the
convenience of receiving and paying their household bills online or
in person through retail outlets. CheckFree Investment Services
provides a broad range of investment management solutions and
outsourced services to thousands of financial services
organizations, which manage more than $1 trillion in assets.
CheckFree Software develops, markets and supports software
applications that are used by financial institutions to process
more than two-thirds of the 10 billion Automated Clearing House
transactions in the United States. The division also provides
reconciliation, financial messaging, compliance and electronic
billing and statement software to hundreds of organizations across
the globe. DATASOURCE: NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association
CONTACT: Michael Herd of NACHA, +1-703-561-3924, ; or Judy DeRango
Wicks of CheckFree, +1-678-375-1595, Web site:
http://www.nacha.org/
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