Frost Bank Teams With Viewpointe for Check Image Exchange
FROST BANK TEAMS WITH VIEWPOINTE FOR CHECK IMAGE EXCHANGE
San Antonio, TX and Charlotte, NC, August 9, 2005—Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) announced today that it has teamed with Viewpointe to participate in check image activities through its Pointe2Pointe™ service. As a result, Frost Bank will directly exchange check images and information with Viewpointe’s growing network of the Nation’s largest banks, enabling Frost to take advantage of the check processing efficiencies associated with Check 21 legislation.
“At Frost, we have made strategic investments in image technology to enhance the products and services we offer our customers and to be competitively positioned to take advantage of Check 21,” Gary McKnight, EVP of Frost Bank. “Viewpointe’s member banks represent a large volume of our check clearings. By exchanging electronically with these banks, we can offer enhanced services to our customers and improve the efficiency of our check and settlement operations and infrastructure.”
“Frost Bank is a highly respected financial institution, well known for making progressive and sound technology decisions, “stated Jerry Chambers, Viewpointe’s interim chief executive officer. “Their decision to become an active and contributing member of Viewpointe’s image exchange program illustrates their leadership in adopting innovative and proven technologies that will provide them early competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
Pointe2Pointe™ enables any financial institution to safely and directly send and receive check images, rather than paper, with Viewpointe’s national archive customers and other Pointe2Pointe members while maintaining their current image archive environment. Frost Bank will immediately join the Viewpointe User Group—a collaborative team made of Viewpointe bank peers that is chartered to execute image sharing and exchange relationships and operational business practices decisions.
Frost Bank and existing Viewpointe members will begin prioritizing image exchange production scheduling to take advantage of image clearing benefits. Settlement will be facilitated by the National Clearing House (NCHA).
About Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc.
Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. is a financial holding company, headquartered in San Antonio, with assets of $10 billion at June 30, 2005. The corporation provides a full range of commercial and consumer banking products, investment and brokerage services, insurance products and investment banking services. Its subsidiary, Frost Bank, operates 78 financial centers across Texas in Austin, Boerne, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Galveston, Harlingen, Houston, McAllen, New Braunfels, San Antonio and San Marcos. Founded in 1868, Frost is the largest national bank headquartered in Texas, helping Texans with their financial needs during three centuries. Cullen/Frost Bankers' stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CFR.
About Viewpointe
Viewpointe is the leading provider of check image and “Check 21” related services to the nation’s top financial institutions. Viewpointe operates the largest national archive of check images and information and is the only institution able to provide image exchange on demand through ImageShare™ and direct bank to bank image exchange through Pointe2Pointe™. Viewpointe members include: BancorpSouth, Inc., Bank of America, BB&T, Compass, First Horizon National Corp., Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., Harris Bank, HSBC Bank USA, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., National City Corporation, SunTrust Bank, Synovus Financial Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Zions Bancorporation. For more information about Viewpointe and its services, please visit www.viewpointe.com