Four Community Banks Choose Mitek's Check Imaging Solution; Community Banks to Install Mitek's CheckQuest Solution.

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2001

Mitek Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:MITK), a developer of automated document recognition technology, announced that four community banks each purchased its CheckQuest(R), check imaging and proof of deposit (POD) system.

Garnett State Savings Bank of Garnett, Kansas, The Pleasant Hill Bank of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, Commercial Bank of Oak Grove, Missouri and Bank of Odessa of Odessa, Missouri will use CheckQuest to proof, capture, encode, reconcile, research and archive checks.

"These four individual CheckQuest purchases are significant to the Company for a variety of reasons. It reaffirms our position as a provider of highly advanced, yet affordable check imaging and POD systems for the small to mid-size financial institution," said John M. Thornton, Chairman and President of Mitek Systems.

"We continue to add CheckQuest customers across the nation to our roster, and see this product line as an important part of our strategy going forward," said Thornton.

According to Charles Kellogg, Chairman of Garnett State Savings Bank, the bank will use CheckQuest to gain improvements in efficiency and customer service. The bank anticipates improvements in check filing and statement rendering in addition to researching check archives. Researching checks was once a time consuming task that required customer service representatives to locate checks stored on microfilm.

CheckQuest provides the bank with instantaneous access to check archives, which allows customer service representatives to answer inquiries very quickly over the phone. Garnett State Savings Bank has total assets of $65 million and currently processes 5,000 checks a day. The bank has been serving customers since 1899.

"I believe CheckQuest has many unique features that will allow us to reduce costs, become more efficient operationally and provide even better customer service," said Kellogg.

Richard Goppert, Chairman of The Pleasant Hill Bank, believes that CheckQuest will significantly reduce the time currently required to generate statements. Additionally, the system's courtesy and legal amount recognition (CAR/LAR) capabilities, which are fully integrated into the POD process, provide the bank with a competitive edge.

The bank will see an immediate reduction in the manual keying of check amounts. By automating this task with CheckQuest, the bank's use of personnel resources will improve, resulting in measurable labor savings. With total assets of $76 million, The Pleasant Hill Bank processes an average of 5,000 checks a day.

According to Dave Eblen, President of Commercial Bank of Oak Grove, the bank replaced its existing check and item processing system with CheckQuest in order to improve the bank's customer service and reduce operating expenses.

The CheckQuest system eliminates the need for hand keying of check amounts by automatically reading the courtesy and legal amount on checks. Commercial Bank of Oak Grove has assets of $110 million and processes 8,000 checks a day. The bank has been serving the greater Oak Grove area since 1907.

"CheckQuest provides Commercial Bank of Oak Grove with technology that in the past was only available to larger financial institutions. It also allows us to better compete with these same institutions," said Eblen.

"By replacing our old system with Mitek's CheckQuest solution, we will be one of the first in our area to provide the benefits of check imaging to our customers. We believe our responsiveness to customer service inquiries will be much faster with CheckQuest's research capabilities," added Eblen.

Ken Coleman, Cashier of Bank of Odessa, believes the CheckQuest system will allow his bank to grow without adding staff. Bank of Odessa has been in business since 1889 and currently has $245 million in assets. It processes approximately 8,000 checks per day.

"We chose Mitek's solution because it will allow us to more efficiently process checks. It has many unique features that we didn't find in other solutions," said Coleman.

"For example, Mitek's courtesy and legal amount recognition technology that is embedded into CheckQuest allows it to perform Credence Assisted Balancing. Credence Assisted Balancing saves time by providing us with a faster, more accurate method for automatically balancing batches of items," continued Coleman.

About CheckQuest

CheckQuest provides community banks and other institutions with an affordable, high-performance, check imaging solution. CheckQuest's unique forms processing and document identification capabilities that are built into the system are designed to improve the balancing efficiency and overall workflow of community banks. The CheckQuest system can process any number of bank documents without the aid of a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) line or forms redesign that is often required with other traditional proof of deposit systems.

About Mitek Systems

Mitek Systems Inc. is a worldwide provider of intelligent character recognition technology, products and services for the document and check imaging markets. The Company's document imaging software engine and intelligent character recognition products and services are used in mission-critical and high volume data entry, data capture, and forms processing applications installed in many of the world's leading financial institutions, manufacturing and service companies, and government organizations. For more information about Mitek Systems, contact the Company at 10070 Carroll Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92131; 858/635-5900 or visit the Company's Web site at www.miteksys.com.

Forward-Looking Statement Disclosure

With the exception of historical matters, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainty. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the development and pace of sales of the Company's products, expected trends and growth in the Company's results of operations, projections concerning the Company's available cash flow and liquidity, anticipated penetration in new and existing markets for the Company's products and the size of such markets, anticipated acceptance of the Company's products by existing and new customers, the ability of the Company to sustain any growth in sales and revenue and the increase in sales representatives and other personnel. The Company's actual results could differ in such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that the Company will achieve the results set forth herein. Mitek, Mitek Systems and CheckQuest are registered trademarks of Mitek Systems Inc. All other product or company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.