CFSI's Tescher to Speak on Breaking Trends in Tax Prep-Banking Partnerships; Paper Also Released Today Promotes Marketing Opportunities, Addresses Refund Splitting.

CHICAGO -- Jennifer Tescher, Director of The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), will discuss how financial institutions can partner with tax preparation firms to acquire and serve underbanked consumers as part of The National Community Tax Coalition's fourth annual national conference, Building Prosperity for Working Families, which continues through September 21, 2005 at the Chicago Hilton. Her presentation is in conjunction with the release today of CFSI's latest research paper examining the growing interest in such partnerships, and the potential business opportunities available. It includes a discussion of how firms and individuals can take advantage of the newly allowed option of refund-splitting as a marketing and asset-building tool.

Entitled, "Expanding Financial Services to Underbanked Consumers: How Tax Preparation Partnerships Can Help Bridge the Gap," the paper is available at: http://www.cfsinnovation.com/managed_documents/taxprep.pdf. For more information on the presentation, "Asset-Building Policy and Practice: Opportunities to Engage," scheduled for 10:05 a.m. today, or to register for the conference, visit the coalition's web site at http://www.tax-coalition.org/events/sept2005/index.htm. The National Community Tax Coalition leads the nation in connecting working families to tax benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit. Its annual conference is the country's largest gathering of policy makers, government agencies and community groups that addresses tax issues facing the working poor, and provides both commentary from national figures and solutions from affiliates working on the local level.

One of the projects discussed in the paper was Bank One's Direct Card program, which offered a stored value card as an alternative to traditional direct deposit for refunds. Bank One has since merged with JPMorgan Chase. Gloria Reynolds, Director of Strategic National Alliances & Programs for JPMC's Community Development Group, who oversaw the project from its inception, commented, "The Direct Card was important in helping us solidify our community connections while we were fine-tuning our stored-value product. As we move forward with this strategy for future tax seasons, we firmly believe that stored value card accounts offer underbanked consumers an entryway to mainstream banking and provide Chase with a valuable way to reach a large, untapped market."

"The hardest part of serving the unbanked is getting them in our door, said William Myers, CEO of Alternatives FCU, also covered in the study. "The substantial tax refund from free tax preparation overcomes this barrier to entry. The Refund Express Loan gives us enough information to cross sell to our new members."

About CFSI:

The Center for Financial Services Innovation, an initiative of ShoreBank Advisory Services, was founded in 2004 with support from The Ford Foundation. Its mission is to facilitate efforts to offer underbanked consumers across the economic, geographic and cultural spectrum asset-building opportunities that create value for both customers and companies. It provides funding and resources, enables partnerships, and develops and distributes authoritative information on how to respond to the needs of the underbanked both profitably and responsibly. CFSI works with banks, credit unions, technology vendors, alternative service providers, consumer advocates, and policy makers to forge pioneering relationships, products and strategies that will transform industry practice and the lives of underbanked consumers. For more on CFSI, go to www.cfsinnovation.com.