CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

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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