CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

CheckFree Wins Multiple Gold Awards in New CityCompass Corporate Actions Benchmark Report LONDON and ATLANTA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Software, a division of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR), today announced that its advanced Corporate Actions solution, CheckFree eVent(TM), has just achieved several gold accreditations in the new corporate actions (CA) report: Benchmarking of International Systems and Services (BISS) (1). The report was commissioned by CityCompass, an independent financial services consultant, and prepared by Andrew Chilcott, a senior analyst at Bloor Research, assisted by a panel representing a cross-section of securities practitioners including BNP Paribas SS, UBS, Dresdner Kleinwort, Baring AM, HSBC and others. The CityCompass BISS report has been broadly divided into three categories: CA systems for Asset Managers, Broker/Dealers and Custodians. CheckFree won a gold label accreditation in the two areas considered to be the most challenging to implement - Broker/Dealers and Custodians. According to the report, CheckFree scored well in meeting the needs of business requirements, in the richness of its technical functionality and in system maturity. The report also recognises that CheckFree has not only achieved SWIFTReady label status for Corporate Actions, but has the additional ability to generate payment messages. It cites CheckFree as having excelled in several key areas. Says Andrew Chilcott: "CheckFree stood head and shoulders above all the others in providing a step by step, date by date demonstration of every trigger and task undertaken in processing the four events. If I had been a customer, I would have been suitably impressed by the ease of configuration, the transparency of the processing and the care that had been taken to make the demonstration specific to me as a potential customer. I must commend CheckFree on their achievement and setting a standard that other vendors would do well to follow." CheckFree is also the only solution cited in the report that was able to openly identify the problem of bonds with attached coupons that do not get announced - an important feature of calculating fixed interest entitlements. When it came to issuing confirmations via the Web, CheckFree was mentioned as having a 'notably good solution.' It was further mentioned that the addition of a web-browser makes widespread deployment and system management much easier. Overall, the report confirms that CheckFree always scores highly when the quality of systems and its architecture are taken into account. Amery Thomas, senior vice president of International Operations for CheckFree Software, said: "We are honored to have been so well reviewed in a report that carries the weight of such prestigious industry experts as Andrew Chilcott and CityCompass. These findings reflect and reward the progress we have made in the latest release of CheckFree eVent and the hard work of a broad team of experts here who have produced a truly end-to-end solution that delivers a low risk 'out of the box' deployment in corporate actions, the most complex of financial software environments." CheckFree eVent is a next generation corporate actions automation workflow and exception management suite and one of only two CA solutions to have achieved SWIFTReady CA accreditation. Developed by HelioGraph Ltd., which is now part of CheckFree Software, eVent offers a rules-based design with a large library of extensively pre-tested templates and supports SWIFT and other major standards, leveraging an inherently integrated architecture to provide truly global straight through processing (STP) capabilities. Footnotes: 1 'Benchmarking Corporate Actions Systems & Information Services 2004', published Sept 2004.- Prepared by CityCompass & Bloor Research 2 Ibid 3 Ibid About CityCompass http://www.citycompass.org/ Initially conceived and founded by five senior financial services industry operations professionals, CityCompass was incorporated in May 2000 to provide a unique range of services to suppliers and users of products in the financial services industry. These services encompass reports providing independent analyses and opinion and information on topical industry issues, thought leadership events, event creation and management, agent consultancy and training. About Bloor Research http://www.bloor-research.com/ Bloor Research is a leading independent IT analysis and consultancy company, specialising in providing strategic advice and guidance based on practical experience. Its objective is to save clients' time by providing comparison and analysis that is clear and succinct; update clients' expertise, enabling them to have a clear understanding of IT issues and facts and validate existing technology strategies and bring an independent perspective, minimising the inherent risks of product selection and decision-making. Bloor Research's reputation is built on the quality of its primary research and analysis work and the experience and expertise of its analysts. About CheckFree ( http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ ) 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 $900 billion 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 global trade processing, reconciliation, financial messaging, compliance and electronic billing and statement software to thousands of organizations across the globe. 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, 2004 (filed September 3, 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 relations, Judy DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Investor relations, Tina Moore, +1-678-375-1278, , both CheckFree Corporation; or UK media, Elaine Graham EG Communications, +44 (0)7919 554660, or Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ http://www.citycompass.org/ http://www.bloor-research.com/

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