Check Free Receives NACHA Quality Award for ARC Processing

Through software and outsourcing, CheckFree processes millions of ARC transactions each month for national telecommunications, credit card issuers and regional utilities. In the 4th quarter 2004, CheckFrees administrative return rate for these ARC payments was 0.01 percent, fourteen times better than the industry average of 0.14 percent. An administrative return is an ACH debit that the RDFI cannot post to an account because it contains an invalid or unrecognizable account number. Because administrative returns have been a concern of billers, their financial institutions and service providers have addressed the issue and offered solutions. The result is that the administrative return rate for ARC is less than half the rate of 0.31 percent for all ACH debits. In addition, the ARC administrative return rate has steadily declined since beginning at 0.46 percent when first available in March 2002. The Kevin OBrien ACH Quality Award is presented annually to one or more organizations to recognize best practices in ACH participants efforts to maintain and improve the quality of ACH services and the integrity and reliability of the ACH Network. The award is named for the late Kevin OBrien, NACHAs Chairman in 1999-2000.