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MCLEAN, Va., May 15 /PRNewswire/

At its first annual meeting last week, Online Resources & Communications Corporation ORCC , a leading application services provider for Internet banking and bill payment services, reported that it doubled its revenue in its first year as a publicly traded company. Matthew P. Lawlor, chairman and chief executive officer, said: "The past year was very strong. We doubled revenue and tripled end users. This trend has carried over into the first quarter of 2000. We now have approximately 15 million potential end users. "We also introduced free Internet banking for Online Resources' clients," he said. "This is the wave of the future, and it means that the financial institutions we serve can now deploy the banking portion of our services free of monthly charges. To offset these free services, we adjusted the pricing of our bill payment products and other services." Mr. Lawlor explained the change in fee structure makes it easier for client banks to attract new customers for Internet banking services, while allowing Online Resources to retain a consistent revenue stream. In sum, this is a win-win for clients and for Online Resources. "Our goal is to ensure continued growth as more banks convert to our new pricing model."

Achieved FY 1999 and First Quarter 2000 Financial Goals
During 1999 and the first quarter of 2000, Mr. Lawlor said Online Resources attained financial stability. He noted the company successfully launched a $43 million public offering in June 1999, eliminated $10 million in debt over the past 12 months and converted $35 million of preferred stock to common stock. "We continue to improve margins and key metrics," Mr. Lawlor said, "and our growth has been consistent. For example, we just completed our fourth consecutive quarter reporting as a public company where our year-over-year revenue increases approached or exceeded 100 percent."

More Accounts and Clients Added
In the past year, Online Resources increased its number of clients to 408 financial institutions under contract from 305 in the first quarter of 1999, Mr. Lawlor reported. "We also have 166,000 actual account users," he added. "That's an increase of 182 percent over the first quarter of 1999 and a 23 percent increase over the last quarter of last year."

Profitability Achieved
Carl D. Blandino, executive vice president and chief financial officer, noted that in the first quarter of 2000 Online Resources achieved a positive gross profit. He said that gross profit in the first quarter was $48,000 compared to a gross loss of $402,000 a year earlier. He added that the company also has more than sufficient capital through year-end to meet research and development costs, as well as marketing and overhead expenses.

Outlook for 2000
Overall, Mr. Lawlor said that Online Resources has unmatched capabilities, strong operating fundamentals and growing market share. "We are confident in our company's strategy for continuing growth and long-term shareholder value," he said. "There are thousands of banks in our U.S. marketplace that need us to meet their customers' growing demand for online banking services. "We are exceptionally well positioned for 2000 and beyond," he concluded. 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 over 400 institutional clients nationwide. The company provides consumer bill payment 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 and their retail customers, giving their clients a seamless "hub" solution with a single point of accountability and control.

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.