BankAmerica Enhances Positive Pay Service With Image Technology.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 1995--BankAmerica Corporation today announced the addition of electronic check imaging to its Online Positive Pay service, in which corporate cash management clients work interactively with the bank to combat the explosive growth of check fraud. The new Image Positive Pay Service(TM) is being demonstrated for corporate treasury managers here this week at the Expo LA 95 conference. Clients access both services using personal computers.

In an accompanying white paper, one in a series on key issues of interest to corporate treasurers, BankAmerica explains how image technology is being used in check processing and how companies can prepare for this technology.

It is estimated that more than $4 billion was lost to check fraud in 1993 in the United States. The amount of counterfeit checks written annually against corporate accounts now totals more than $1 billion nationwide.

Image Positive Pay identifies potentially fraudulent checks and transmits their images to customers early each day. Using this service, clients view both sides of these checks on a personal computer, examining endorsements, dollar amounts, and other critical information on a check to help determine whether or not it is fraudulent.

Clients can magnify any area of a check up to 800 percent. They can rotate the check, change the contrast to heighten an image, and print a copy of it. To stop a check from being paid, the client transmits a "no pay" instruction to BankAmerica.

The San Francisco-based California State Automobile Association (CSAA) uses Image Positive Pay. Ed Acenita of CSAA Accounting said, "This service saves me a lot of time. With Image Positive Pay, we can zoom in on a check to see the exact dollar amount and check number, which means I don't have to call the bank for this kind of information."

BankAmerica Vice President Gerald Stephens, head of Global Payment Services Product Consultants, said, "Image Positive Pay gives our customers a real head start on returning bad checks. They no longer have to request, and wait for, photocopies of suspect checks. Instead, they call up an image of them on their computer screens."

In the white paper, "Image Technology: Its Evolving Role in Cash Management," BankAmerica cites the potential benefits that imaging can bring to businesses: reduced storage costs; quick access to information; simultaneous, multiple access; improved record-keeping; clear, easy-to-read images; and the ability to manipulate images. The company said that banks are applying this technology in both disbursement and deposit services.

Image Positive Pay is an application on BankAmerica's WANDA(TM) Electronic Services platform. WANDA gives corporate treasurers a powerful tool for managing their banking activity and improving their operating efficiency. It is designed to link their personal computer to an ever-increasing number of BankAmerica's business products and services and to adapt various WANDA functions to their specific needs.

BankAmerica, a diversified, global financial services company with offices throughout the United States and in 36 other countries, is among top cash management services providers domestically and internationally. BankAmerica is the nation's largest private check processor, handling 26 million business and consumer checks every day.

CONTACT: Bank of America 

Sharon Tucker, 415/622-2775