CheckFree Announces Bank of America Alliance Agreement Amendment
December 04 2003 - 5:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
CheckFree Announces Bank of America Alliance Agreement Amendment
ATLANTA, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Corporation ,
the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and
products, announced today that its Electronic Commerce division has
amended its agreement with Bank of America , the nation's largest
retail bank, to update the terms originally announced in April
2000. The agreement was updated to reflect the rapid growth in
consumer adoption of electronic billing and payment at
http://www.bankofamerica.com/ and future, growth- rate projections
ahead of those contemplated in the original contract, as well as
the economies of scale, and operational efficiencies that CheckFree
has achieved. "Bank of America has taken the lead in electronic
billing and payment, as evidenced by our dramatic growth in active
online users, e-bill volumes and by the receipt of top honors in
numerous industry rankings," said Sanjay Gupta, consumer and small
business e-Commerce executive with Bank of America. "As a strategic
partner, CheckFree has been instrumental in that success and we
look forward to our continued partnership." The terms of the
agreement are intended to expand the relationship for the duration
of the original ten-year contract, which runs through 2010.
Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, however primary
revisions relate to: - commitments to further mainstream consumer
adoption, including e-bill delivery and adoption; - adjustments to
long-term service pricing. New transaction-based pricing allows
CheckFree and the bank to take advantage of economies of scale
CheckFree has realized with rapid consumer adoption; - enhancements
to CheckFree's industry-leading service level agreements for
systems availability and e-mail response times, which bring ever-
increasing quality efficiencies to the customer experience; and, -
Bank of America relinquishing its rights to five million of the
original 10 million warrants outlined in the April 2000 agreement.
The bank's minimum annual revenue commitments remain in place at
$50 million per year. "Bank of America has assumed a leadership
role in educating consumers about the benefits of receiving and
paying bills online, offering the service for free to their
customers, and sharing their findings regarding the positive
correlation between online relationships and long-term
profitability," said Steve Olsen, executive vice president and
general manager of CheckFree's Electronic Commerce division. "Both
CheckFree and Bank of America share a commitment to Six Sigma
quality and productivity processes, which continue to deliver
positive results, not the least of which have been millions of
consumers who have embraced this convenient way to manage their
personal finances. CheckFree believes that a dynamic, interactive
online relationship will eventually overtake paper as the primary
channel for sharing financial information, especially bills and
statements; and together with Bank of America we have made an
aggressive commitment toward that goal." CheckFree also reported
that there are no changes to its previously announced financial
expectations for its current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2004,
or for the second quarter, which ends December 31, 2003. About Bank
of America Bank of America is a leading provider of online
financial services. Bank of America was named the best consumer
Internet bank site in the world by Global Finance magazine for two
years in a row; No. 1 in customer experience by Vividence; among
the Best of the Web by Forbes and Top Financial Web site by Nielsen
NetRatings, based on traffic and the length of time customers spend
on the site. comScore Networks, Inc. called Bank of America "the
clear leader" in the rate of adoption of online bill payment and
the leader of the industry based on overall number of active online
customers. Bank of America stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New
York, Pacific and London stock exchanges. About CheckFree (
http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ ) CheckFree (NASDAQ:CKFR) is the
leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and
products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 23rd year in
e-commerce, CheckFree is comprised of three divisions: Electronic
Commerce, Software, and Investment Services. CheckFree launched the
first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in
1997. In the quarter ended September 30, 2003, more than 11 million
consumers initiated online payments through services offered by
CheckFree's Electronic Commerce division. Electronic billing and
payment is available through more than a thousand financial
services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms, Internet
portals and personal financial management (PFM) software. At these
sites, consumers are able to electronically receive and pay about
300 bills, representing the bills most common to a U.S. household.
CheckFree delivers nearly 15 million e-bills each quarter.
CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment
management services to thousands of financial institutions
nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1.3 million
portfolios totaling more than $700 billion in assets. CheckFree's
Software division provides solutions through three operating units:
CheckFree ACH Solutions, CheckFree Financial and Compliance
Solutions (CFACS), and CheckFree i-Solutions. CheckFree ACH
Solutions provides software and services that are used to process
more than two-thirds of the nation's nine billion Automated
Clearing House payments, while CFACS provides reconciliation and
compliance software and services to more than 500 organizations in
the banking, brokerage, utility, retail, insurance and credit card
industries, among others. CheckFree i-Solutions is the leading
provider of e-billing and e-statement software and services for
both business-to- consumer and business-to-business applications,
with more billers as clients than all of its competitors have
combined. Certain of CheckFree'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
CheckFree's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed
from time to time in CheckFree's periodic reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including CheckFree's Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2003 (filed
September 15, 2003), and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended September 30, 2003 (filed November 13, 2003). One or
more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect
CheckFree'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 press release will prove to be accurate,
and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be
regarded as a representation by CheckFree, or any other person,
that the objectives and plans of CheckFree will be achieved. All
forward- looking statements made in this press release are based on
information presently available to management, and CheckFree
assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
DATASOURCE: CheckFree Corporation CONTACT: Judy DeRango Wicks,
Media relations contact, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Tina Moore,
Investor relations contact, +1-678-375-1278, both of CheckFree
Corporation Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/
http://www.bankofamerica.com/ Company News On-Call:
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