ALLTEL and CheckFree Offer Mortgage Lenders Electronic Billing and Payment Capabilities - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, August 2, 1999

ALLTEL (NYSE: AT) and CheckFree announced Monday an agreement to provide lenders with electronic mortgage billing and payment capabilities via the Internet. This initiative, which will allow lenders' customers to both view and pay bills easily by accessing the web, will be available in mid-September. IndyMac's LoanWorks Servicing will be among the first ALLTEL clients to implement the system.

As part of this electronic billing and payment (EBP) initiative, mortgage lenders' customers will now be able to receive an electronic summary of their bill as well as their mortgage statement, complete with graphics, logos and full billing details.

"The industry's top lenders are quickly recognizing the benefits that electronic billing provides not only to their customers, but also to their bottom line," said Pete Sinisgalli, president and chief operating officer for CheckFree. "The ease and efficiency that customers realize from receiving and paying their bills online, combined with the reduced costs to the businesses who issue those bills, makes EBP a winning proposition for everyone."

Electronic billing and payment provides a number of benefits to both the lender and the borrower.

For mortgage customers, online access to their mortgage bill and other household bills and the ability to pay all bills via the Internet site of their choice offer unprecedented convenience. Borrowers also gain more control over finances because they have the ability to schedule when payments are made electronically and eliminate postage fees.

For the lender, these capabilities streamline processes and reduce overhead costs. In fact, according to a recent study by Killen & Associates, a market research firm in Palo Alto, Calif., traditional paper billing costs 60 cents to $1.40 per bill. On-line bill distribution and payment options can cut that cost to approximately 50 cents -- a significant cost savings.

"An easy-to-use and accurate electronic billing and payment system has been eagerly anticipated by the mortgage industry, and ALLTEL has been aggressively pursuing a proven system to offer clients," said Jim Milligan, president of ALLTEL Residential Lending Solutions. "Our commitment to our clients is to provide cost-effective automation tools that streamline mortgage processes -- the goal being to reduce redundancies and increase a lender's financial standing. EBP is another value-added tool in the ALLTEL suite of products and services designed to achieve that goal."

Since launching the nation's first fully integrated, market-proven electronic billing and payment solution in 1997, CheckFree has signed multi- year contracts with more than 50 of the country's largest billers. CheckFree E-Bill is currently available through more than 20 integrated Internet sites including Bank One, First Union and Charles Schwab.

CheckFree, the operating subsidiary of CheckFree Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: CKFR), is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services, software and related products. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable nearly three million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or electronically through a variety of bill aggregation points, including banks, brokerage firms, portals and interactive content sites on the Internet, and personal financial management (PFM) software.

CheckFree's range of services and products are focused on enabling customers to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial transactions and conduct secure Internet transactions.

ALLTEL is the leader in the mortgage loan automation industry and the largest U.S. provider of software and processing services to firms servicing residential mortgage loans. ALLTEL's Mortgage Servicing Package is an on-line mortgage loan servicing system that automates all areas of loan servicing, including loan setup and maintenance, cashiering, escrow administration, investor accounting, customer service and default management. ALLTEL currently provides loan-servicing automation for more than 20 million mortgage loans, with balances exceeding $2 trillion.

ALLTEL Information Services, with customers in 54 countries, provides information processing management, outsourcing services and application software to the financial, mortgage and telecommunications industries.

ALLTEL is a customer-focused information technology company that provides wireline and wireless communications and information services.