Avolent Certified to Provide Electronic Bill and Invoice Software to Spectrum Members; Builds on Existing Relationship With Bank-Owned Electronic Billing System.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2001

Avolent, Inc., a leading vendor of electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) and interactive customer care (ICC) solutions, today announced an agreement with Spectrum EBP under which Avolent becomes a certified software vendor to provide solutions to billers and bill service providers (BSPs) connecting to the Spectrum network. Spectrum is a bank-owned payment system that routes electronic bills between billers and consumers.

"We're very pleased to name Avolent a certified software vendor for our member institutions," said John Perry, chairman and CEO of Spectrum. "Avolent has been an important contributor to the development of our core electronic bill presentment and payment technology and to the electronic billing industry in general."

An independent venture formed by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., First Union Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company, Spectrum provides an EBPP switch infrastructure to and for the benefit of financial institutions and their customers. Under an existing relationship, Avolent provides core technology to Spectrum to ensure that the EBPP systems of Spectrum member institutions comply with the Open Financial Exchange (OFX) standard. Founding Spectrum member Wells Fargo has been using Avolent's BillCast for more than two years to publish electronic bills and distribute them via Spectrum.

Doug Thompson, chairman and CEO of Avolent, said, "Spectrum is uniquely positioned to drive the electronic billing industry forward, so we are very pleased to have achieved Spectrum-ready certification. Our software and services enable billers and service providers to take full advantage of the tremendous capabilities and reach offered by the Spectrum network."

About Spectrum

Spectrum is an independent company fully owned by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), First Union Corporation (FTU) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC). Formed to facilitate the exchange of electronic bills and payments, Spectrum's mission is to provide a secure, open and interoperable infrastructure to electronically link consumer and biller service providers. Additionally, Spectrum seeks to provide value to its participants by providing superior service and reducing overall bill presentment and payment costs. Spectrum does not host any bills directly, nor does it retain any bill details. Including the three founders, 22 financial institutions currently belong to the Spectrum network or have signed letters of intent to participate in the network. More information on Spectrum can be found at www.spectrumebp.com.

About Avolent

Avolent is the leading provider of standards-based software solutions for Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP), Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) and Interactive Customer Care (ICC). Avolent's BizCast software provides benefits to all parts of the business-to-business delivery chain -- including billers, payers, service providers, exchanges and financial institutions. Through a unique, data-centric approach, BizCast automates the entire "invoice-to-pay" process by helping businesses present, route, reconcile, dispute, analyze and pay invoices online. The company's modular BillCast(TM) software suite enables relationship-centric billers to deploy secure, scalable solutions for personalized billing, statement presentment, payment and service delivery that increase the value of each customer interaction.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Avolent helped pioneer the Open Financial Exchange (OFX) standard for online bill presentment and the thin consolidator model, and continues to champion open standards, including the Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX). It is also considered a pioneer in the integration of advanced business-to-business and business-to-consumer EBPP and ICC applications. Avolent's customers are some of the largest billing organizations and service providers in the industry, including AT&T, CyberBills, DotsConnect, Intuit, MasterCard, Spectrum, NuVox Communications, Wells Fargo and YourAccounts.Com. For more information, please visit http://www.avolent.com, or call 415/553-6400.

Note to Editors: Avolent, BillCast and BizCast are registered trademarks of Avolent. All other product and company names are the property of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged.