NEW YORK, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Electronic Payments Network (EPN), the ACH business of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., today announced that the number of UPIC payments increased tenfold to 47,700 through the first three quarters of 2006, compared to the same period a year ago.

The dollar value of those payments grew significantly to $2.9 billion through the first nine months of the year, compared to $367.4 million for the same period in 2005 -- an increase of almost 700%. One hundred new UPICs were added during the same period, compared to 24 a year ago. Thirteen banks are now offering UPICs, and a total of 215 UPICS have been issued to a wide range of public and private entities across the country.

"EPN is very encouraged by the accelerating rate of adoption of UPICs over the past year," said Rossana Salaris, Senior Vice President of The Clearing House, responsible for EPN. "This strong growth demonstrates the increasing importance of a secure account identifier in helping to reduce fraud and streamline the payments process for corporate treasurers."

A UPIC is a unique account identifier issued by financial institutions that allows organizations to receive electronic payments without divulging confidential banking information. Developed by the Electronic Payments Network (EPN), UPICs are for credit payments only and minimize the possibility of unauthorized debits, checks and demand drafts.

UPICs are currently used by public and private entities, including nonprofit organizations, such as colleges and universities, as well as a wide range of companies in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. In October 2005, NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association began using a UPIC to facilitate electronic business-to-business payments from its members.

Institutions issuing UPICs include Citibank, Commerce Bank, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase, M&T Bank, Mellon, PNC, State Bank of Long Island, Sterling National Bank, Union Bank of California, USBank and Wachovia Bank.

UPICs are helping remove two of the key barriers identified in research from the Association of Financial Professionals -- the lack of accurate bank account data for vendors and the reluctance to give out bank account information. In addition, an EPN research study found that 38% of large corporations reported unauthorized debits within a six-month period.

How A UPIC Works

No system changes are needed to accounts payable, accounts receivable or cash management systems to use a UPIC. A UPIC looks and acts like a standard bank account number, and travels through the ACH network with the Universal Routing and Transit number. However, a UPIC can only be used for ACH credit payments. A UPIC cannot be used to electronically debit an organization's account or create a check or demand draft, thus reducing the risk of unauthorized debits. The UPIC can be printed on invoices, provided on matching gift forms and displayed on the Internet. Account information is kept private.

A UPIC becomes an organization's permanent electronic payment address. The portability of the UPIC reduces the effort required in changing accounts due to bank mergers or changes in banking relationships, including the cost of communicating new bank account information to trading partners.

To find out if your financial institution offers a UPIC or for more information, go to http://www.upic.com/ or contact Sharon Jablon, 201.319.5516, or sharon.jablon@epaynetwork.com.

About EPN and The Clearing House Payments Company

The Electronic Payments Network (http://www.epaynetwork.com/), a payments business of The Clearing House Payments Company, is the only national private-sector ACH operator in the United States. Its membership consists of more than 1,400 commercial banks, credit unions and savings banks. The Clearing House (http://www.theclearinghouse.org/) is a private-sector, global payment systems infrastructure that clears and settles more than 40 million payments totaling $1.6 trillion per day. The Clearing House manages payment services that span the entire spectrum of paper, paper-to-electronic and electronic payments.

CONTACT: Chip Savidge, Office: +1-212-613-9896, Mobile: +1-917-576-0957,
chip.savidge@theclearinghouse.org; or Greg Berardi, Office: +1-415-239-7826,
Mobile: +1-415-672-2377, greg@bluemarlinpartners.com, both for EPN

Web site: http://www.theclearinghouse.org/
http://www.upic.com/
http://www.epaynetwork.com/