Date: 11/13/2007
ATLANTA and LAS VEGAS, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — BAI Retail
Delivery Conference Booth #2021 - CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR)
today announced its expanded OpenChannel strategy for mobile banking and
payments.
CheckFree’s expanded mobile strategy is designed to support multiple
technologies for delivering online financial services via mobile devices, including
microbrowser-based wireless application protocol (WAP), text messaging (known
as SMS for short messaging service), and device-resident applications. Financial
institutions can choose from a full range of deployment options, including hosted,
software-based, hybrid and flexible component models, to meet their specific
needs.
“CheckFree’s OpenChannel strategy for mobile banking and payments
recognizes that financial institutions need the flexibility to choose and implement
multiple technologies for the delivery of these services,” said Alex Hart, executive
vice president and general manager, CheckFree Electronic Banking Services
Division. “We are responding to our customers’ needs for multiple technologies,
infrastructure solutions and professional services to help them implement optimal
mobile banking and payment solutions.”
Celent LLC, a leading financial services information technology and strategy
research firm, estimates that 3 percent of all households using online banking in
2007 will also use some form of mobile banking. In 2010, this figure is estimated
to rise to 30 percent, the equivalent of 17 million households.
“To determine the best technology for mobile banking, Celent regards banks’
needs for ubiquity as the biggest driver of mobile banking technology
attractiveness. If banks are to build mobile banking channels and derive
associated benefits, all bank customers must have access to this channel, not
just those using certain mobile carriers or owning particular handsets,” said Red
Gillen, senior analyst of emerging technologies at Celent. “Given this, it is highly
likely that any successful mobile banking implementation will adopt a hybrid
model consisting of a minimum of two technologies-SMS plus mobile browser, or
SMS plus client application.”
Since November 2006, CheckFree’s primary focus in the mobile channel has
been on the device-resident downloadable application, offered through a
strategic partnership with Firethorn Holdings, LLC (www.firethornmobile.com).
America First Credit Union, Arvest Bank, BancorpSouth, SunTrust Bank,
Synovus, and Wachovia Corp. are among the CheckFree customers that have
announced their selection of the device-resident approach.
CheckFree has already extended support for multiple mobile technologies by
working with one of the nation’s top five financial institutions as part of a WAP
browser-based implementation. CheckFree provides the payment processing
infrastructure that enables the bank’s customers to view electronic bills and
schedule and cancel payments using mobile devices.
About CheckFree (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 financial services providers to
offer the convenience of online banking, and along with billers, to offer the
convenience of receiving and paying household bills online, via phone or in
person through retail outlets. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad
range of investment management solutions and outsourced services to hundred
of financial services organizations, which manage about $1.8 trillion in assets.
CheckFree Software develops, markets and supports software applications that
are used by financial institutions to process more than 75 percent of the nearly
16 billion Automated Clearing House transactions in the United States. The
division also provides financial institutions and other organizations with payment
processing and consulting, reconciliation and exception management, fraud and
risk management, cash and logistics management, and compliance software and
services.
Certain of the Company’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 the Company’s business, and
other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company’s periodic
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the
Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2007 (filed
August 24, 2007), and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
September 30, 2007 (filed November 7, 2007). One or more of these factors
have affected, and could in the future affect the Company’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 the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and
plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in
this press release are based on information presently available to management,
and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements.