CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

WEDGE Capital Management to Use APL-MSP, CheckFree's Multiple Strategy Portfolio Solution -- First institutional investment manager to utilize APL-MSP functionality -- ATLANTA and JERSEY CITY, N.J., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Investment Services, a division of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR), today announced that Charlotte, NC-based WEDGE Capital Management is the first institutional investment manager to license CheckFree APL(SM) MSP, CheckFree's multiple strategy portfolio functionality. 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. "Until now, retail separate account managers have relied on CheckFree APL-MSP, but there is great value in the platform for the institutional investor as well," said Alex Marasco, CheckFree Investment Services executive vice president and general manager. "WEDGE Capital Management recognizes the value APL-MSP brings to its approach of managing institutional separate accounts, by fine-tuning an array of investment decisions right down to a particular holding and tax-lot, and completely automating through technology what is often a manually-based process." Assets flowing into separately managed accounts and interest in multiple strategy portfolios continues to climb. Financial Research Corporation reports that assets in separately managed accounts rose 29 percent last year to more than $500 billion. More than 35 client firms of CheckFree Investment Services, including managers and sponsors, are using APL-MSP to administer their multiple strategy portfolios. The average asset size of a multiple strategy portfolio on the CheckFree APL platform is $500,000, and CheckFree Investment Services has seen the growth of these accounts increase by 300% in one year. WEDGE Capital Management has $4.1 billion in assets under management, of which 97 percent is invested for institutional clients. WEDGE Capital Management offers a host of equity, fixed income and balanced strategies and utilizes APL-MSP to assist the firm in managing its family of multiple strategy portfolios. "With APL-MSP, we can trade a particular security in a targeted style without affecting that same security in other styles," said Brad Horstmann, WEDGE Capital Management executive vice president. "CheckFree's APL-MSP tool tags the specific holding at the tax-lot level, giving us the flexibility and precision necessary to effect our investment decisions." CheckFree introduced APL-MSP in 2002. As the industry's first set of trading, reporting and back-office tools for multi-style portfolios, APL-MSP supports portfolios consisting of internal or "affiliated" managers of a sponsor firm, as well as "best-of-breed" programs: multi-style accounts with unaffiliated managers and an overlay manager who retains control and makes changes according to a portfolio's performance objectives. With best-of-breed programs, investors receive all the benefits of a team of managers who bring their respective style expertise and trading strategies to an account. 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 WEDGE Capital Management L.L.P. ( http://www.wedgecapital.com/ ) Independently owned WEDGE Capital Management was founded in 1984 to manage stock, bond and balanced portfolios in a consistent, disciplined and value- oriented manner. WEDGE Capital Management L.L.P. is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. 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 1.5 million portfolios totaling $900 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 March 31, 2004, more than 13 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 essentially all the bills most common to a U.S. household. CheckFree delivers 22.5 million e-bills each quarter. 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 the 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. 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), Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2003 (filed November 13, 2003), Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 (filed February 12, 2004), and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 (filed May 14, 2004). 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, 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/ http://www.wedgecapital.com/ http://www.checkfreeinvsvcs.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/821650.html

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