The financial institution owners of Integrion serve more than 75 percent of the retail banking population in North America. More than 10 million consumers rely on the best selling Quicken personal financial management software program.

The joint development effort creates an opportunity for banks to leverage the economies of scale created by Integrion's real time, middleware electronic commerce platform and the consumer appeal of Quicken and also Intuit's Web-based financial products. Additionally, consumers using Intuit products will benefit from the broad market reach of Integrion banks.

Integrion and Intuit said they will develop together server technology that translates Intuit financial software transactions into Integrion's Gold Standard messages. The solution, which will be available to financial institutions in the first half of 1998, will provide an interim solution to bridge the 1998 versions of Quicken to the IFS platform that is operated by IBM for Integrion.

Both Integrion and Intuit remain committed to converging the Gold Standard and Open Financial Exchange, and will continue participating in industry efforts to achieve this goal.

According to William M. Fenimore, Jr. managing director of Integrion, this step is necessary in the effort to converge the two leading standards for financial connectivity.

"The ultimate goal here is convergence of Gold and Open Financial Exchange," said Fenimore. "Concurrently, there is clearly an immediate need for joint customers of Integrion and Intuit to connect the two offerings so the benefits of both solutions can be realized as soon as possible. This effort will enable banks to move forward with their retail delivery strategies today with confidence that both players are committed to long-term interoperability."

"With this agreement, the 10 million combined customers of Quicken will have access to the online banking services of an expanded universe of financial institutions," said Bill Harris, executive vice president of Intuit. "And the Integrion banks will have the opportunity to serve a large installed base of financially-active and computer-savvy customers - many of today's most promising prospects for financial services."

Bank Perspectives Regarding Today's Announcement by Intuit and Integrion Financial Network
"As an Integrion bank, Bank One welcomes the addition of Intuit products to the IFS platform," said Bruce Luecke, general manager of Interactive Delivery Services for Bank One. "We expect both organizations to continue to be key contributors to the development of electronic commerce going forward. The connectivity between the two will improve market delivery of new products and services to consumers and small businesses by allowing banks to 'plug and play' as functionality increases."

"This is very positive news for the industry and most certainly for our customers," said James M. Grant, senior vice president of First Chicago NBD. "The connectivity between Intuit and Integrion insures that Intuit products will remain an integral component of First Chicago NBD's remote banking strategy."

"Integrion banks continue to be committed to an open platform that accepts multiple financial management software options," said James D. Dixon, president of NationsBank Services, Inc. "Everyone appreciates the hard work that Intuit has put forward that results in more choices and ease of use for financial institutions and their customers."