The Bon Marche Teams Up With TransPoint to Offer Online Bill Payment To Its 1 Million Credit Card Customers

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., and CINCINNATI, Aug. 15, 2000 — TransPoint LLC and The Bon Marche, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., today announced that customers of the Bon Marche can now receive and pay their credit card statement through the TransPoint™
online bill payment service. The Bon Marche joins several other Federated stores, including Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, in offering the TransPoint service.

The Bon Marche has 42 stores in Washington, primarily in the Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Spokane markets, as well as smaller stores in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming. In 1999, it posted sales of $975 million. Other Federated department stores, including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Burdines, Goldsmith’s, Lazarus, Rich’s and Stern’s, which together serve more than 10 million U.S. credit card customers, also offer the TransPoint online bill payment service.

Through the TransPoint service, The Bon Marche customers can view and pay bills that arrive electronically, pay bills online that arrive through the U.S. mail and initiate a payment online to anyone with a U.S. mailing address. Customers can check the status of their e-bills and pending payments via their computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If more help is needed, the TransPoint service includes Web site support and a fully staffed customer service team.

“The Bon Marche’s decision to offer its customers online bill payment is a logical extension of its dedication to providing customers with excellent customer service,”
said Lewis Levin, president and CEO of TransPoint.
“The easy-to-use TransPoint service will allow The Bon Marche customers to receive and pay their bills online.”

Companies that deliver bills electronically through TransPoint benefit from targeted marketing, greater control over the billing process and personalized customer care. Their customers benefit from an easy, convenient service that is fast, flexible and secure.

The TransPoint e-bills service is available to consumers through the MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service ( http://moneycentral.msn.com/ ), TransPoint ( http://www.transpoint.com/ ), Prodigy Internet service ( http://www.prodigy.com/ ), the Go2Net Network ( http://www.go2net.com/ ), Compass Bank ( http://www.compassweb.com/ ) and InterWest Bank ( Bank (http://www.interwestbank.com/ ).

About TransPoint

TransPoint, established in June 1997, is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) and First Data Corp., with Citibank as a minority equity investor. Englewood, Colo.-based TransPoint is a leader in the emerging electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) industry with a seamless e-bills service built from the ground up. The TransPoint system uses innovative technology and integrates easily with billers’ and banks’ existing payment systems. The TransPoint service is designed to be a fast, easy way for consumers with Internet access to make all their payments online from a single, secure Web site.

On Feb. 15, 2000, TransPoint entered into a definitive merger agreement with CheckFree Corp., a leader in electronic billing and payment. The combined technologies and relationships of the two entities are expected to accelerate the billing and payment process from paper to the Internet and to advance the rate at which consumers sign up for electronic billing. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase by CheckFree and is expected to be final in three months. More information about TransPoint is available at http://www.transpoint.com/ .

About Federated Department Stores

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation’s leading department store retailers with annual sales of more than $17.3 billion. Federated currently operates more than 400 department stores in 33 states under the names of Bloomingdale’s, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith’s, Lazarus, Macy’s, Rich’s and Stern’s. Federated also operates the Fingerhut, Bloomingdale’s By Mail, Macy’s By Mail and Macys.com direct-to-consumer catalog and electronic commerce subsidiaries.

TransPoint is an exclusive U.S. trademark of TransPoint LLC. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. If you are interested in viewing additional information on First Data, please visit the First Data Web page at http://www.firstdatacorp.com/ . If you are interested in viewing additional information on Citibank, please visit the Citibank Web page at http://www.citibank.com/ . Information on Federated and its operating divisions is available on the Internet at http://www.federated-fds.com/ . Copies of past press releases and corporate background data also are available by calling Fax-On-Demand at (800) 853-9150.

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