CheckFree and Wachovia Extend Partnership

Today, Oct 2004

CheckFree Corporation (www.checkfreecorp.com) has signed a five-year contract extension with Wachovia Corporation (www.wachovia.com) to provide outsourced electronic billing and payment services to Wachovia's entire online banking customer base. With this agreement, Wachovia will leverage CheckFree's electronic billing and payment processing capabilities and CheckFree Web, its consumer-centric user interface, to Wachovia's online customers.

CheckFree currently serves a portion of Wachovia's active online bill payment customers, and expects the financial services organization to eventually migrate all of its retail and small business customers to the CheckFree Web platform.

Consumers will be able to request greater access to CheckFree e-Bills from a growing number of national, regional and local billing companies through Wachovia's Web site.

"This expanded partnership will bring Wachovia's online customers the country's leading suite of electronic billing and payment capabilities," said Steve Olsen, executive VP and general manager of CheckFree's Electronic Commerce Division. "We believe Wachovia's leadership will enable our companies to further extend these services into the mainstream consumer market and to pursue additional innovations in the electronic financial services industry."

"The greater availability of e-Bills will deliver important content to our online customers, which will continue to enhance the value the service offers," said Lawrence Baxter, Wachovia's executive VP and chief eCommerce officer.