Fiserv Develops Educational Program to Help Financial Institutions Prepare for Check 21

Business Wire, June 22, 2004

BROOKFIELD, Wis. -- Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq:FISV) has announced the availability of a Check 21 preparedness program that will help financial institutions prepare for what many are calling the biggest change to check processing in more than 40 years.

Norm Balthasar, Fiserv Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said Fiserv's program is designed to ensure that financial institutions can easily prepare for the Oct. 28, 2004, implementation of the new law.

Fiserv, the nation's largest third-party check processor, has hosted more than 2,000 financial institution executives at a continuing series of Check 21 seminars across the country. But, Balthasar said, Fiserv found a profound need among financial institutions for additional support.

"We have learned from talking with our clients that most still have quite a bit of work remaining to get ready for this new era in check processing," Balthasar said. "We hope, through this program, to ease the transition and to give financial institutions the confidence that they are doing the right things to get ready for Check 21."

Recent studies also show that financial institution customers - both businesses and consumers - know little or nothing about the new law, Balthasar said. "Financial institutions exist to serve their customers, so our program also will include many tools for banks, savings institutions and credit unions to educate that important audience," he said.

Fiserv's program will address two important Check 21 components - staff education and customer notification and awareness. All of the offerings will be accessible through the Fiserv Resource Center at www.fiservrc.com. The introductory material is available now with additional elements to be added once the Federal Reserve publishes the final rules for Check 21 in July.

Fiserv annually touches more than 4.2 billion checks through its outsourced check processing operations. The company operates 50 check-processing centers across the U.S. and another six in Canada, and has a national image archive that adds nearly 7 million check images each day. Fiserv has more than 1,700 outsourced check processing clients and provides image-based services to another more than 800 clients through its Information Technology, Inc. (ITI) and Imagesoft units.

Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq:FISV) provides industry leading information management systems and services to the financial industry, including transaction processing, outsourcing, business process outsourcing and software and systems solutions. The company serves more than 15,000 clients worldwide, including banks, broker-dealers, credit unions, financial planners/investment advisers, insurance companies and agents, self-funded employers, lenders and savings institutions. Headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv reported $2.7 billion in processing and services revenues for 2003. Fiserv can be found on the Internet at www.fiserv.com.