Thomson Financial Publishing, CheckFree and US Dataworks To Work with Aid Association for Lutherans to Co-Develop NACHA's Lockbox Truncation Pilot.Business Editors/High Tech Writers LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000 Thomson Financial Thomson Financial A major provider of information, analytical tools, and consulting services to the financial community. The firm, a division of Thomson Corporation, is best known to investors for its First Call segment, which publishes consensus earnings Publishing (TFP TFP Total Factor Productivity TFP Tradition, Family and Property TFP Time for Prints TFP Transference-Focused Psychotherapy TFP Trade for Prints (modeling) TfP Training for Peace (South Africa) ), Checkfree, US Dataworks and Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL (ATM Adaption Layer) The part of the ATM protocol that breaks up application packets into 48-byte payloads which become ATM cells when the 5-byte headers are attached. The AAL resides between the higher layer transport protocols and the ATM layer. ) have entered into discussions about collectively developing a software package to facilitate the conversion of "accounts receivable accounts receivable n. the amounts of money due or owed to a business or professional by customers or clients. Generally, accounts receivable refers to the total amount due and is considered in calculating the value of a business or the business' problems in paying " checks to ACH (automated clearinghouse) debits. The contract negotiations, which will define respective roles and responsibilities, were announced at the NACHA NACHA National Automated Clearing House Association NACHA National Agency Clearing House Association 2000 Payments conference. TFP, CheckFree and USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. intend to work jointly on the design of the package that will combine their respective software. TFP will bring its EPICWare(TM) filter, a data solution that ensures straight-through processing straight-through processing The direct exchange of cash and securities. Straight-through processing is a major objective for cross-border transactions that are generally much more costly to settle compared to domestic transactions. of ACH transactions by validating and modifying, as necessary, American Bankers Association The American Bankers Association (ABA) is comprised of banks and other financial institutions. It seeks to promote the strength and profitability of the banking industry by Lobbying federal and state governments, building industry consensus on key issues, and providing products and (ABA) routing and transit numbers and account number structures. USD will re-engineer Remitworks(TM), its electronic debit software, and Returnworks, its ACH return item system, which interface with CheckFree's PEP+ ACH origination software. The yet-to-be-named product to be provided to AAL will efficiently truncate To cut off leading or trailing digits or characters from an item of data without regard to the accuracy of the remaining characters. Truncation occurs when data are converted into a new record with smaller field lengths than the original. checks from the lockbox operations to ACH instructions. AAL formally joined NACHA's PPD (1) (Parallel Presence Detect) The method used by earlier SIMM memory modules to communicate their capacity to the computer. A binary number coming from a parallel set of pins was read by the system, with each pin representing one bit. Contrast with SPD. Accounts Receivable Truncated Check Debit Entries pilot program. This one-year pilot test allows selected originators to truncate checks received through the U.S. mail as payment for goods or services and convert these checks to ACH debit entries. Participants in this pilot, such as AAL, were required to enter into an agreement with NACHA and provide statistical data on their experiences with these transactions. Among the measurements to be tracked are the number of items that are truncated and AAL's success in realizing straight-through-processing. "AAL expects its involvement in the pilot to be very successful, in part because of its use of this new software," said Lisa Johnston, senior manager, AAL Cash Management Services. "AAL is committed to its customers. Lockbox truncation will improve the efficiency of our lockbox and lower operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . This result will help AAL to continue offering competitive member services and benefits." If proven successful, this software offering will be marketed to organizations deploying a lockbox truncation business initiative. Lockbox truncation is an efficient mechanism for reducing collection time, improving customer service, increasing cash flows, lowering costs due to less human involvement, and creating an opportunity for earlier fraud detection. Glenn Gottfried, TFP's general manager, stated, "The software will leverage EPICWare's ability to address administrative errors before they occur, ensuring that a check's MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) The machine recognition of numeric data printed with magnetically charged ink. It is used on bank checks and deposit slips. MICR readers detect the characters and convert them into digital data. is converted to ACH." EPICWare compares the check's routing and account numbers against a data file, updated and maintained by TFP. "Approximately 18 billion checks are written each year in remittance of invoices. This software will be an effective tool to accurately convert and settle these items as well as provide extensive management reports." said Terry Stepanik, USD's president. Quinn Thomas, vice president of sales for CheckFree, added, "Because this client/server software is fully integrated with CheckFree's PEP+ ACH processing system, CheckFree's customers are in a unique position to take full advantage of this new business opportunity. AAL is a valued client of CheckFree. We're confident this new software will prove to be necessary for making lockbox truncations successful and profitable." About Thomson Financial Publishing Thomson Financial Publishing, a division of Thomson Financial Media, is a leading provider of financial institution information to the world. TFP maintains the most authoritative and comprehensive databases of financial institutions. These databases are leveraged to produce products that are used for accurately originating fund transfers to realize higher straight-through processing rates and to facilitate the repair of rejected transactions. Other TFP products ensure compliance with U.S. regulatory agencies, including the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U. , and aid in the detection of money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. and check fraud. Additionally, TFP facilitates global interbank communication and marketing, providing the widest array of print publication and marketing services. As official routing number registrar for the American Bankers Association, TFP issues, retires and maintains a record of all U.S. routing numbers. For more information, visit Thomson Financial Publishing on the Internet at www.tfp.com or call (847) 676-9600. Thomson Financial Media is a division of Thomson Financial, a US$1.44 billion provider of information services See Information Systems. and work solutions to the financial and corporate communities worldwide. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, a leading e-information and solutions business with annual revenues of more than US$5.8 billion. The corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto and London stock exchanges London Stock Exchange London marketplace for securities. It was formed in 1773 by a group of stockbrokers who had been doing business informally in local coffeehouses. . For more information on Thomson Financial, visit www.thomsonfinancial.com. About US Dataworks Established in 1997, USD (www.usdataworks.com) develops, markets and supports transaction-processing software for Windows NT(R) computer systems. About CheckFree CheckFree Corporation (www.checkfree.com), is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and products. Founded as an electronic payments processor in 1981, CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution, CheckFree E-Bill(SM), in March of 1997. Today, CheckFree services enable three million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or electronically. The Company has multi-year contracts with 89 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through its network of partnerships with more than 100 consumer service providers (CSPs), including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites, and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree's Investment Services division provides a range of investment management services to help more than 255 institutions provide portfolio management and reporting services to their clients. CheckFree clients manage over 820,000 portfolios totaling more than $480 billion in assets. Software and services provided by CheckFree's Compliance and Financial Service division are used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated Clearing House See ACH. (ACH) payments. In addition, nearly 400 banks and businesses use reconciliation products and services the division provides. About Aid Association for Lutherans Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL), a Fortune 500 organization based in Appleton, Wis., is a fraternal benefit society of 1.7 million members who are joined together for insurance, education and volunteer opportunities. AAL is the nation's leading fraternal benefit society in terms of assets and individual life insurance in force. The company was founded in 1902. For more information about AAL and its affiliates, visit www.aal.org. |
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