NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- CashEdge, Inc. (www.cashedge.com), the leading provider of online financial applications, announced today that is has been selected by University of Wisconsin Credit Union (www.uwcu.org), a Top 150 U.S. credit union, to implement online account opening and funding. The CashEdge OpenNow/FundNow solution is the industry's first end-to-end, single-session, online account opening and funding solution, and enables prospective UW Credit Union members to securely open and fund a new account in real time through the website at www.uwcu.org.
OpenNow is an online account enrollment, authorization and validation product. FundNow provides a risk-managed service for instantly and securely funding new accounts online. Together, the solution increases new account completion rates by reducing the time and complexity of the new account opening and funding process. Prospective members can apply for, be approved for and fund a new account in one single session through an automated authentication and verification process. Working with the existing online account opening process CashEdge will leverage UW Credit Union's advanced internal development and integration work to deliver a seamless user experience to the credit union's members.
"We are pleased to have been selected by such a progressive organization as UW Credit Union. As a credit union serving the university and surrounding communities, more than half of UW Credit Union's members use their online channel and thousands of new members come to them each year expecting the simplicity and efficiency of the Internet," stated Sanjeev Dheer, chief executive officer of CashEdge. "Using OpenNow/FundNow, UW Credit Union will be able to grow membership quickly and efficiently. UW Credit Union's adoption of the technology is a bellwether for the role this technology is going to play as must-have functionality for credit unions and banks alike," he concluded.
Online member acquisition is attracting greater attention among Credit Unions because online members are less costly to acquire and more profitable, maintaining higher account balances, utilizing more services and exhibiting higher overall account activity.
"We've seen an amazing demand for the use of the online channel to simplify long complicated processes. By offering this service we are able to reach a segment of prospects that are unwilling to sit in a branch and fill out paperwork and don't have the patience for mailing forms back-and-forth," said Eric Bangerter, Director of Internet Services at UW Credit Union. "We are very optimistic about the impact that Open Now/Fund Now will have on our new member account completion rate. The fact that the technology allows us to process a new membership application in five minutes versus the 30 minutes it used to require made CashEdge an obvious choice," he added.
OpenNow and FundNow are available for both banks and credit unions as stand-alone solutions or as part of CashEdge's comprehensive Bank Suite and Credit Union Suite.
About CashEdge
CashEdge(r) provides innovative, online financial applications for banks, credit unions and wealth management firms. CashEdge's solutions include end-to-end online account opening and funding, funds transfer and data consolidation. These proven solutions are flexible, scalable and supported by extensive risk management capabilities. With CashEdge, financial institutions are able to create compelling online offerings that attract customers, generate revenues and reduce costs.
CashEdge serves over 175 financial institutions in North America, including such leading institutions as Citibank, Royal Bank of Canada and The Vanguard Group. CashEdge has offices in New York and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.cashedge.com.
About UW Credit Union
Founded on September 29, 1931, UW Credit Union (www.uwcu.org) offers an array of financial services including mortgages, investment products, checking, saving, and consumer loans. Convenience services allow members to access their accounts from almost anywhere in the world: Web Branch, Web Statements, Web Pay bill paying service, TouchTone Teller automated phone service, direct deposit, automatic transfers, and ATMs. UW Credit Union, as a cooperative, not-for-profit financial institution, is the second largest credit union in Wisconsin, with combined assets totaling more than $730 million and serving more than 100,000 members. Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, UW Credit Union has six locations in the Madison area, as well as branches in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Whitewater.