MONETT, MO (March 12, 2014) – Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY) is a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry. Its Symitar® division today announced that it earned 25 new credit union relationships for its core platform during the first half of the organization’s 2014 fiscal year, which spanned July 1 to Dec. 31, 2013, including three with more than a billion dollars in assets. Episys® continues to have the largest market share of credit unions with assets exceeding $50 million and currently supports 88 of the 208 credit unions with assets exceeding $1 billion.
Washington state-based Fibre Federal Credit Union, which has more than $760 million in assets, is one of the new Episys clients. According to Christopher Bradberry, the credit union’s president and chief operating officer, “Operating as one of the largest credit unions in our area, our business requirements and our members’ expectations have grown to the point we needed a more current technology platform driving our products and services and how we deliver them. We also have a significant number of manual processes we want to automate and an array of third-party products we want to optimize with full integration with our core system. We have high standards for the level of service our primary technology partner provides, and after retaining a consulting firm to manage our evaluation, we confidently partnered with Symitar to provide an Episys-based technology platform. Episys provides the proven and flexible functionality we need to support our near- and long-term plans and to significantly increase our operating efficiencies by automating numerous manual processes and workflow. Symitar’s willingness and ability to work with third-party providers and open connectivity to their solutions is also very beneficial for our credit union. Symitar and Episys will provide our credit union with a tremendous amount of operational improvements and stability.”
Symitar also continued to experience strong demand by credit unions of all sizes to outsource during this time period. Fourteen of the 25 new core deals elected to implement Episys in an outsourced environment and five existing credit union clients elected to migrate from in-house processing to Symitar’s outsourced solutions. Three of these existing clients elected to migrate to Symitar EASE™, the Episys outsourced solution, and two moved to the CruiseNet®outsourced solution.
Symitar provides an array of integrated complementary products and services, including the credit, debit, and ATM card processing services available through JHA Payment Processing Solutions® (PPS), a business unit of Jack Henry & Associates. Of the 25 new core wins, 15 also selected PPS in the first half of fiscal year 2014.
Angie Mielke, data processing and IT operations manager for Kansas-based Hutchinson Credit Union, an Episys client for more than 10 years and one of the recently-signed PPS clients, said, “We converted from an in-house operation using the jhaPassport.pro™ platform for our debit card processing and ATM driving to PPS. We also converted our third-party credit card pass-through program to PPS. The conversion to PPS was a welcome change to our in-house processing environment and enabled us to consolidate our ATMs, debit cards, and credit cards on one proven platform backed by exceptional service. PPS has provided us with great customer service and support for our day-to-day operations, and the integration with Episys has offered operating efficiencies and information access we did not have with our third-party credit card solution. We are very happy with our move to PPS.”
According to Greg Peter, senior vice president and CFO for Kansas-based Cessna Employees Credit Union, an Episys client for more than seven years and another new PPS client, “We made the decision to outsource ATM and debit card operations to PPS for a number of strategic reasons. The full integration of Episys and the PPS platform, the extensive credit union expertise that PPS offers and proven ability to support the unique aspects of credit union card programs, the ability to reduce the management and maintenance required by in-house card operations, and the predictable PPS processing costs were important factors in our decision. The service and support PPS provides has exceeded our expectations and enabled us to increase back office efficiencies with its dedicated support for chargeback processing, fraud management, and account management.”
During the same six-month period last fiscal year, Symitar had earned 18 new credit union core relationships and PPS had earned 12 new clients.
According to Ted Bilke, president of Symitar, “These credit unions are inherently diverse with respect to their business strategies, operational infrastructures, and membership bases. But each of them conducted an evaluation of the competitive alternatives and all made the same technology decision based on Symitar’s proven success delivering a sophisticated and extremely flexible core system, fully integrated complementary solutions, outstanding service levels, and integrity-driven business relationships. Symitar is an established industry leader with an undisputed commitment to ongoing technological evolution and innovation. We look forward to long and successful technology partnerships with each of these credit unions and welcome them to our growing roster of progressive, growth-focused clients.”
About Symitar
Symitar, a division of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY), is the leading provider of integrated computer systems for credit unions of all sized. Symitar currently serves more than 800 credit unions as a single source for integrated, enterprise-wide automation and as a single point of contact and support. Additional information is available at www.symitar.com.
About Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.
Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.® (NASDAQ: JKHY) is a leading provider of computer systems and electronic payment solutions primarily for financial services organizations. Its technology solutions serve more than 11,300 customers nationwide, and are marketed and supported through three primary brands. Jack Henry Banking® supports banks ranging from community to mid-tier institutions with information processing solutions. Symitar® is the leading provider of information processing solutions for credit unions of all sizes. ProfitStars® provides best-of-breed solutions that enhance the performance of domestic and international financial institutions of all asset sizes and charters using any core processing system, as well as diverse corporate entities. Additional information is available at www.jackhenry.com.