Microsoft Ships “Marble” Beta To 70 Financial Services Organizations Worldwide

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 9, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it has shipped the Microsoft® Internet Finance Server (MIFS) toolkit, formerly code-named
“Marble,”
to 70 domestic and international solution providers and financial institutions. These organizations have agreed to install, test and begin systems integration of the MIFS toolkit. It is expected that CoreStates Bank, N.A.; PaineWebber Inc.; and Wells Fargo will be the first companies to implement online financial services solutions based on MIFS. These organizations will immediately begin development efforts to integrate the Microsoft Internet Finance Server toolkit with their existing legacy systems and enable their customers to execute transactions over the Web using Open Financial Exchange (OFX)-based clients. Offerings from these three companies are expected to be available within the next six months.

CoreStates, PaineWebber and Wells Fargo will use the MIFS toolkit as a cost-effective means of delivering support to their customers using personal finance management (PFM) software such as Microsoft Money and Intuit Quicken, through their own Web sites or Web clients such as Microsoft Investor (http://investor.MSN.com/) . In addition, CoreStates – working with InteliData – will integrate the MIFS toolkit with its own implementation of InteliData’s Interpose Financial Engine. ;

Support from these companies reflects the tremendous response by the financial services community to the Microsoft Internet Finance Server toolkit. Financial institutions continue to look for ways to deliver banking and brokerage services to their customers cost-effectively via the World Wide Web. This toolkit provides the core functionality financial institutions need to build transactional Web sites.

As financial institutions evolve their online platforms, they can combine the functionality of the Microsoft Internet Finance Server toolkit with Microsoft’s broad range of Web platforms, including Microsoft Transaction Server and Microsoft Site Server, and development tools, such as the Microsoft Visual InterDev
™
Web development system, to create a full-service delivery channel where customers can buy financial products and services.

“We are pleased that these institutions have committed to implement our Microsoft Internet Finance Server toolkit in their organizations,”
said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft.
“Their endorsements confirm that MIFS provides the critical components that financial institutions and solution providers need to offer great Web-based financial services to their customers.”

MIFS is a development platform based on the Windows NT® Server network operating system for Web-based financial services. MIFS enables financial institutions to build Web sites where customers can pay bills, check account balances, transfer funds between accounts, and view banking and brokerage statement data.

“With our implementation of MIFS and Interpose, CoreStates customers will have access to feature-rich and easy-to-use Web-based financial services,”
said Linda Weber, senior vice president, electronic commerce and delivery systems and technology, CoreStates Financial Corp.
“MIFS will enable CoreStates to implement one platform to support our PFM customers and deliver a superior Web banking experience to our Internet customers.”

Financial institutions that provide Web-based banking and brokerage services based on the MIFS toolkit will enable their customers to access financial data using browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, or client software that supports OFX, including Microsoft Money, Quicken and Microsoft Investor.

MIFS components address data integrity and scalability concerns associated with building an online financial services site. To address common security concerns associated with online financial services, MIFS components support 128-bit encryption and work with major firewall packages. Web site authoring is made easier through the Internet Finance Server’s Web Development toolkit, which includes Web server components, sample code and a sample site that developers can easily use
“out of the box”
for quickly accessible functionality. These capabilities include viewing online statements, transferring funds, paying bills online and secure sign-on. Web developers can rapidly develop and test an attractive, fully functional, branded site by using Visual InterDev to modify the sample site and sample code, each stored as a Visual InterDev project, and incorporate financial institutions’ branding data and custom scripting.

Financial institutions and solution providers interested in more information about the Microsoft Internet Finance Server toolkit can access the Microsoft Internet Finance Server white paper (downloadable from h ttp://www.microsoft.com/industry/finserv/ after Sept. 15), which provides background information and technical details.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Visual InterDev and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

For online information:

http://www.microsoft.com/industry/finserv/

http://www.microsoft.com/syspro/

(http://www.backoffice.microsoft.com/products/siteserverE/)

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/

http://www.microsoft.com/vinterdev/

(http://www.wellsfargo.com/)

(http://www.painewebber.com/)

(http://www.corestates.com/)

(http://www.intelidata.com/)

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.

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