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ORCC Designs, Executes and Pays for Financial Institutions' Marketing of Online Services

MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 7

One month after announcing the successful pilot of its consumer marketing programs, Online Resources & Communications Corp., a leading provider of Internet banking services, said today that 64 of its financial institution clients have already signed up to launch the new programs.

Online Resources designs, executes and pays for consumer marketing programs. With all its clients having more than eight million checking account customers, the programs offer an excellent chance of greatly increasing the number of end users, which already grew at a rate of 189% over the last year, said Ron Bergamesca, senior vice president for marketing.

"We're thrilled with the initial sign-up for our consumer marketing programs, and we expect more clients to follow," Bergamesca said. "This is a clear indication to us that the banking industry in general and our clients in particular are ready to aggressively court the online customer."

Many of the 64 banks and credit unions have signed up for more than one of the five marketing programs - branch incentives, solo direct mail, statement inserts, telemarketing and Web ads.

President Steve Crowe of Williamstown Savings Bank said his Massachusetts bank plans to make use of Online Resources' direct mail program. "The professional experience of Online Resources' marketing staff was a key factor," Crowe said. "We feel the marketing plan and materials are first rate and will help immensely as we look to build our online services."

Diane Tom, marketing manager at San Francisco Federal Credit Union, believes they can greatly increase users with aggressive marketing. "We were especially attracted by the variety of marketing programs Online Resources is offering," Tom said. "We think there's a tremendous opportunity for us to increase awareness and usage of our online services with ORCC's help."

But these programs are only the beginning. Bergamesca said Online Resources plans to continually add new programs to keep marketing fresh and leverage other marketing channels. For example, the company will be introducing ATM vestibule "take ones," inbound customer service marketing and statement envelope "bangtails." "Our approach is that any point of contact with the customer is a marketing opportunity," he said.

The pilot results announced last month bode well. As an example, the solo direct mail piece enticed over five percent of the recipients to sign up, an excellent return rate, Bergamesca said. "We hope for even greater results from our branch incentive and telemarketing programs."

The programs will take a two-phase approach. First, they will entice consumers who are not currently doing online banking to sign up as well as convert home banking users to bill pay users. Second, the marketing will motivate consumers to actively use the service, especially bill paying, perhaps by offering a monetary incentive.

Cathy Lange, marketing officer for United Cooperative Bank in West Springfield, Mass., said the bank will utilize branch incentives and direct mail to convert online bankers to online bill payers. "We've been pretty aggressive in marketing our online banking service over the past two years, but this opportunity to develop a more targeted marketing effort was just too good to pass up," Lange said. "We've been a leader in our area in online banking, and we think this marketing program will help us stay ahead of the competition."

"Just using the cash management functions, such as account look-up, balance inquiries and transferring funds among accounts, doesn't commit the consumer to the product or to the institution," Bergamesca said. "Bill paying does. That's the sticky application that keeps our end-users with their institution."

Online Resources has found that online bill payers have an extremely low churn rate compared to regular bank customers. Online Resources has budgeted up to $12 million on consumer marketing for its clients.

Online Resources & Communications Corporation ( http://www.orcc.com ) is a leading outsourcer of privately-branded Internet financial services for regional and community banking institutions. The McLean, Virginia-based company has more than 400 institutional clients nationwide. The company provides consumer bill paying and banking services and aggregates lending, insurance, securities trading and investment services. Online Resources performs real-time processing through its patented EFT gateway and full customer service for client institutions, giving them a comprehensive "hub" solution from a single vendor. Client consumer marketing programs are conducted under the bankonline.com co-brand.

This news release contains statements about future events and expectations, which are "forward-looking statements." Any statement in this release that is not a statement of historical fact may be deemed to be a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Specific factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: the company's history of losses and anticipation of future losses; the company's dependence on the marketing efforts of third parties; the potential fluctuations in the company's operating results; the company's potential need for additional capital; the company's potential inability to expand the company's services and related products in the event of substantial increases in demand for these services and related products; the company's competition; the company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the company's reliance on the company's patents and other intellectual property; the early stage of market adoption of the services it offers; consolidation of the banking and financial services industry; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in filings made by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those risks and uncertainties contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.