CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

Prudential Investments Managed Accounts Consulting Group Licenses M-Pact from CheckFree Investment Services ATLANTA and JERSEY CITY, N.J., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Investment Services, a division of CheckFree Corporation , today announced that the Managed Accounts Consulting Group of Prudential Investments recently licensed CheckFree M-Pact, a Web-based application for automating and streamlining the separately managed accounts sales, advisory and proposal process. CheckFree Investment Services is the leading provider of outsourced trading, portfolio management, accounting, reporting services and data to broker/dealers, investment consultants and money managers in separately managed accounts. M-Pact incorporates comprehensive intelligence on separate account managers with flexible data sets on multiple products and strategies, and provides tools for client profiling, asset allocation modeling, portfolio blending and proposal creation. CheckFree clients can customize and private label the application to support a firm's own separately managed account platform. "Prudential's customized version of CheckFree M-Pact, which the Managed Accounts Consulting Group has rolled-out to selected distribution channels, is another illustration of how M-Pact's standardized processes and flexible workflows assist financial firms in creating their own competitively unique solutions," said Alex Marasco, CheckFree Investment Services executive vice president and general manager. "CheckFree M-Pact also empowers financial advisors with front- and middle-office tools to leverage and drive asset growth." The Managed Accounts Consulting Group, a leading developer of managed accounts platforms, jointly developed with CheckFree the customized version of M-Pact now integrated within the Prudential Managed Assets Advisory Platform (MAAP), a suite of tools and services for third-party financial representatives including national broker/dealers, insurance companies, regional broker/dealers, bank and trust companies and independent broker/dealers. M-Pact features give select financial professionals logging into MAAP the ability to generate investment proposals, research and analyze separate account strategies, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. A single, integrated Web-based desktop application that can be customized and private-labeled, Prudential's MAAP makes it easier for financial professionals to build and manage a book of business. MAAP supports a full strength consultative process through a menu of services. Financial professionals can create client profiles with on-line questionnaires, determine asset allocations, research and recommend investment options, produce customized proposals, monitor performance and generate client approved performance reports. Integrating M-Pact functionality into MAAP supports the asset allocation and consulting process by enabling financial advisors to conduct multiple product analysis, compare blends and combine products. Earlier this year, CheckFree announced that that OFI Private Investments, a subsidiary of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. (OFI), licensed a customized version of M-Pact. The OFI Private Investments sales force and marketing group is leveraging M-Pact's vast separately managed accounts manager data to create proposals for advisor clients. Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. also licensed and customized M-Pact, and introduced it under the private label, Money Manager Analysis and Proposal System (MMAPS) to independent investment advisors with Schwab Institutional. Advisor-Link, a private label, customized Web-based version of M-Search with select M-Pact features, was deployed last year by A.G. Edwards to enable its financial consultants to build tailored investment strategies for clients. CheckFree APL serves as the leading separately managed accounts platform, providing remote processing services to sponsor firms, money managers and financial advisors for the automation of investment management, trading, portfolio performance and investor reporting. CheckFree APL's open platform enables approximately 39 of the top 50 Wall Street (sponsor) firms and 36 of the top 40 managers to interface with each other, and operate in a straight- through processing environment. Institutional money managers also use CheckFree APL to enter and maintain account data, manage trades and measure portfolio performance. About Prudential ( http://www.prudential.com/ ) Prudential Financial companies, with approximately $421 billion in total assets under management as of September 30, 2003, serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, property and casualty insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement related services and administration, asset management, securities brokerage, banking and trust services, real estate brokerage franchises and relocation services. About CheckFree Investment Services ( http://www.checkfreeinvsvcs.com/ ) Headquartered in Jersey City (NJ), CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions. The company's staff of 350 professionals operates from six offices nationwide, including Durham NC, location of its M-Solutions software applications: M-Search, the leading separate accounts manager database and analytical tool; M-Pact, a Web-based, enterprise solution for manager analysis, reporting and proposal generation; and M-Watch, a performance reporting and measurement system. Clients of CheckFree Investment Services manage 1.3 million portfolios totaling $731 billion in assets. The CheckFree APL platform is leveraged by asset management, broker/dealer firms and investment advisors on a remote processing basis. 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, financial messaging, workflow and compliance software and services to more than 600 organizations in banking, brokerage, investment management, 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: Media relations, Judy DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Investor relations, Tina Moore, +1-678-375-1278, or , both of CheckFree Corporation Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/821650.html

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