The companies said that more than 10,000 people had visited their Web sites to get information about Open Financial Exchange, and that more than 2,785 financial institutions and technology companies had received or downloaded copies of the specification for review, an average of some 139 each business day since the specification was first announced.

Additionally, companies including Destiny Software, Digital Insight, Edify, InteliData Technologies, Integrion, Online Resources, Security First, Syntellect, Ultradata, Vertigo, and Visa Interactive have announced support for the Open Financial Exchange specification in just the past month.

Products and services enabled by version 1.0 are scheduled to be released by the companies beginning in the fall of 1997. The specification is available to be downloaded at CheckFree's Web site (www.checkfree.com), Intuit's Web site (www.intuit.com/ofx/) and at Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com/finserv). The companies said a new Open Financial Exchange Web site will debut shortly and that the new site will also feature a centralized mechanism for collecting and responding to inquiries and feedback.

Open Financial Exchange enables financial institutions to exchange financial data over the Internet with users of desktop and Web-based financial software. The specification, announced this past January 16, is the convergence of Intuit's OpenExchange, Microsoft's Open Financial Connectivity and CheckFree's electronic banking and payment protocols.

CheckFree, Intuit and Microsoft said the specification was developed in response to input from financial institutions that wanted a simplified method for exchanging electronic financial data. They said that since the publication of Open Financial Exchange, more financial institutions have had the opportunity to review the specification and many have offered comment or input. The companies said this input is reflected in version 1.0 of the specification.