ECHO Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2001

ECHO SIGNS LETTER OF INTENT 
TO ACQUIRE NATIONAL CHECK NETWORK

Agoura Hills, Calif.-- Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECHO) announced it has signed a letter of intent to acquire National Check Network (NCN). Based in Rockford, Illinois, NCN is an organization of over 60 collection agencies who contribute negative and positive check writing data to NCN's database of check writers.  NCN's check verification services are marketed to collection agencies who, in turn, market the services to retail merchants.  NCN performs approximately 3 million check verification transactions per month for over 8,200 merchant clients.  With 4.5 million items in its database, NCN is one of the top check verification associations in the country. 

XPRESSCHEX, Inc., ECHO's Albuquerque-based check processing subsidiary, is currently contracted by NCN to process and maintain the NCN database.  Since beginning its association with NCN in 1994, XPRESSCHEX has developed the software that operates in terminals provided to the merchants and the software that operates in the host-based master database maintained at XPRESSCHEX headquarters.  

“The proposed acquisition of NCN fits well with ECHO’s strategy to provide unparalleled check processing services to merchants across the USA.”, stated Kris Winckler, President of XPRESSCHEX. “In addition to the check verification service already provided, we believe other XPRESSCHEX services, such as return check processing, check by phone submission, check conversion, full internet reporting and ECHO’s credit and debit card processing services, will be welcomed by NCN members and promoted actively to their base of merchants."

In January of 2000, ECHO acquired Rocky Mountain Retail Systems (RMRS), a national check verification service that serves over 160 collection agencies and many large retail merchants around the USA. RMRS created and maintains the National Check Information Service (NCIS), a negative check writer database of over 12 million records. With the added volume of the NCN database, ECHO becomes one of the nation’s top check verification processors and intends to promote and expand its check, credit and debit card processing services through its NCN and NCIS networks aggressively.  

 Electronic Clearing House, Inc. provides credit card processing, check guarantee, check verification, check conversion, inventory tracking and/or various Internet services to over 58,000 retail merchants and U-Haul dealers across the nation. 

 To take advantage of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, you are hereby cautioned that this release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  Actual operations and results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements made by the Company.

Media Contact:
Donna Rehman, Corporate Secretary
(818) 706-8999, ext. 3033 or corp@echo-inc.com

Press Releases are also available by calling (800) 233-0406 ext. 3033, or by email to corp@echo-inc.com

2001
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Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO)
28001 Dorothy Drive
Agoura Hills, CA 91301

Phone: (800) 233-0406
Fax: (818) 991-5973
E-Mail: echo@echo-inc.com
URL: http://www.echo-inc.com