Block Financial positions itself as "The Bank-Friendly Alternative" in home banking; renames its software unit

Business Wire, Nov 16, 1994

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1994--Block Financial Corp., a division of H&R Block, today amplified its strategy of partnering with banks to enter the home banking market and said that it is changing the name of its MECA Software subsidiary to Block Financial Software.

"Our strategy in the home banking arena is to ally--not compete with--banks," said Paul Harrison, president of Block Financial Software. "We are the only major software company that will customize products on either a co-branded or private label basis to protect the banks' customer relationships. We are also flexible in terms of allowing banks to select from a menu of services that can enhance the value of these relationships. This is a clear alternative to the way our competition is approaching home banking. Our initiatives in the home banking area will not, however, detract from our commitment to software retailers, nor will they slow our efforts to bring new personal finance software products to market."

Acquired in 1993, Block Financial Software is the publisher of two leading software products, Managing Your Money(R), an award winning personal finance program, and TaxCut, the top-rated personal tax software. Block Financial Software recently introduced Managing Your Money for Windows 2.0, an even easier to use version of its popular personal software program.

Block Financial has also positioned itself to play a major role in the rapidly expanding remote banking market. In recent weeks, it has announced joint ventures with Citibank, Visa Interactive, Interactive Transaction Partners (ITP), and NationsBank, to develop home banking products on a co-branded basis. In each of these alliances, Managing Your Money will be used as the customer interface.

"We're changing the name of our software subsidiary to reinforce Block Financial's and H&R Block's commitment to the personal financial software and home banking markets. We are putting the resources of our $1.2 billion company behind businesses that we see as high growth areas for the future," said William P. Anderson, president and CEO, Block Financial Corp. "This move further demonstrates our intention to use Block Financial as a catalyst to integrate software services with the on-line services of CompuServe and the financial services expertise of H&R Block."

Block Financial Corp. is a developer of branded and private-label financial services and on-line services, and a niche provider of financial offerings to H&R Block's customer base. Block Financial focuses the resources of the entire H&R Block organization--Managing Your Money, CompuServe and Tax Services--to serve the needs of the software and banking community and its customers.

CONTACT: Block Financial

Bill Campbell, 212/546-2664