National City and Union Bank of California Launch Check Image Exchange

NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- SVPCO -- Electronic Clearing Services, the electronic check and check image exchange business of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., today announced that National City Bank and Union Bank of California, National Association are now exchanging check images over the SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network.

The SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network is the nation's premier image exchange network, enabling financial institutions to perform a variety of check image clearing and settlement functions. The three entities involved in the exchange of images use technology supplied by VECTORsgi.

"The launch of this image exchange is a major milestone that is the result of outstanding teamwork between Union Bank of California and National City," said Bill Christensen, Executive Vice President, Union Bank of California. "Image exchange represents the future of the check clearing business in the United States."

Connie Rose, Senior Vice President, National City, said: "Early adoption of image exchange has effectively positioned Union Bank and National City to reap the benefits of image-based presentment. Continued associations between financial institutions who also believe in the value proposition of image exchange will further drive efficiency and cost savings into bank operations. Pursuing Image Exchange through the SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network has proven to be an excellent starting point. SVPCO is an industry leader in terms of the processes and infrastructure to support image exchange for member and customer financial institutions."

The exchanges are being conducted through SVPCO's Distributed Traffic Agent (DTA), a solution developed by SVPCO with VECTORsgi, one of its strategic technology partners. The DTA enables financial institutions to transmit check images directly to each other in a cost-effective manner. The DTA works in conjunction with existing item-processing systems to link institutions into the network and enables institutions to directly exchange payloads of electronic images. SVPCO will also operate a gateway DTA that provides service to multiple financial institutions.

The initial exchange between Union Bank and National City was tested and deployed at a bank level as opposed to utilizing fixed account tables. The banks fully expect to steadily grow the number of sites, images, and cash letters throughout 2005.

"We're pleased to welcome two more banks to the nation's safest, most secure check image exchange network," said Susan Long, Senior Vice President of SVPCO -- Electronic Clearing Services. "SVPCO worked closely with National City and Union Bank to streamline the implementation process to help both institutions begin realizing the benefits of check image exchange in just several months."

In March, Federal Reserve Banks and financial institutions began exchanging images of checks using SVPCO's peer-to-peer image network. In addition, five of the nation's largest banks and a large, third-party service provider are also connected to the SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network. Most of The Clearing House's 19 bank owners are committed to begin linking to the SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network by the end of 2005.

SVPCO's unique Check Image Exchange solution is a single, end-to-end system that provides unparalleled control, security and processing efficiency for transmitting check images and other data directly between participants in the industry. The network enables financial institutions to exchange images of checks peer-to-peer without a cumbersome central processing system thereby eliminating the expense of transporting physical checks. Electronic check image exchange is expected to create efficiencies for the banking industry through operational efficiencies and lower costs.

About Union Bank of California

Based in San Francisco, UnionBanCal Corporation is a bank holding company with assets of $48.1 billion at December 31, 2004. Its primary subsidiary, Union Bank of California, N.A., a leader in providing financial services for small businesses, has 315 banking offices in California, Oregon and Washington, and 21 international facilities. The company's Web site is located at http://www.uboc.com/.

About National City

National City Corporation , headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the nation's largest financial holding companies. The company operates through an extensive banking network primarily in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania, and also serves customers in selected markets nationally. Its core businesses include commercial and retail banking, mortgage financing and servicing, consumer finance and asset management. For more information about National City, visit the company's Web site at NationalCity.com.

About VECTORsgi

VECTORsgi, a Metavante company, is a leading provider of financial transaction and e-payment processing, image processing and image exchange, item processing, dispute resolution and e-commerce solutions for financial institutions and corporations. Its products have been licensed more than 2,300 times by financial institutions ranging in size from community banks to top ten U.S. financial institutions to international banking organizations. VECTORsgi is recognized by American Banker and the research firm Financial Insights in the FinTech 100, an international annual listing of the top technology providers for financial institutions. For more information about the company, visit http://www.vectorsgi.com/.

About The Clearing House Payments Company

The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. (http://www.theclearinghouse.org/) is a private-sector, global payment systems infrastructure that clears and settles 20 million payments for more than $1.5 trillion per day. The Clearing House serves more than 1,600 U.S. financial institutions and hundreds of international participants with payment services that span the entire spectrum of paper, paper-to-electronic and electronic payments. Services include local and regional check exchange and settlement services; ACH association and operations; large-value "wire" payments; electronic check presentment; and an image exchange. Financial institutions of all sizes benefit from payment systems that meet the highest standards for reliability, security and service. The Clearing House Payments Company is owned by the following banks or their U.S. banking affiliates: ABN AMRO Bank, Bank of America, The Bank of New York, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi/Union Bank of California, BB&T, City National Bank, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Comerica Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, National City Bank, PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank. For more information on The Clearing House, contact chip.savidge@theclearinghouse.org, 212-613-9896, or Greg Berardi, greg@bluemarlinpartners.com, 415-239-7826.