New Image Cash Letter Service Strengthens Bank of America's Leadership Position in Post-Check 21 Payment Transformation

Bank of America Global Treasury Services (GTS) today announced it has successfully completed its Image Cash Letter Service pilot program for a number of clients in different industries and the service is now in full market rollout. The Image Cash Letter Service joins the Bank of America Remote Deposit Service as part of its suite of payment transformation services which enable clients to take advantage of the efficiencies in electronic check processing created by the Check 21 legislation.

"Expanding our suite of payments transformation products to include the Image Cash Letter Service gives clients who deal with large volumes of check payments more options and a better way to leverage existing technologies," said Aileen Gleason, senior vice president responsible for Bank of America Payments Transformation.

The Image Cash Letter Service enables clients who typically process high check volumes to use their own hardware and software to create a deposit of check images to send to the bank as an alternative to a traditional paper cash letter or bank deposit. Clients around the globe can capture images of U.S. dollar denominated checks drawn on U.S. banks, then create and electronically send the bank files throughout the day. Bank of America will clear the items as substitute checks or through image exchange.

The service is appealing to corporate clients as well as domestic and international financial institutions according to Karen Healy, senior vice president responsible for U.S. Dollar Denominated Services. "The potential to reduce costs and the risks and delays associated with transporting paper is significant to all our clients," says Healy, "and faster delivery of deposits may translate into faster access to funds. The service is particularly attractive to our non-U.S. based clients, who previously relied on international courier delivery of checks to the United States -- which can delay the posting of a deposit by a week or more. Additionally, operating costs may also be significantly reduced by moving from a paper to image processing environment."

Clients already using the Image Cash Letter Service and realizing the benefits it provides include a leading processor of high-volume, low-value payments, a large bank holding company that has more than 6 million customers in 50 states and a financial institution in Central America.

Leading the Check 21 Payment Transformation

"Since the Check Processing for the 21st Century Act was enacted October 28, 2004, Bank of America has been a leader and advocate in industry forums to develop the architecture and standards to allow for image exchange," said Gleason. "Bank of America is currently the only bank that is connected to the four major image-clearing networks. We are already exchanging images with several key partner institutions. We believe that we have only just begun to see the potential benefits in efficiency and cost savings of this technology that we can extend to our clients as additional partner relationships continue to be established."

About Bank of America Global Treasury Services (GTS)

The Global Treasury Services (GTS) division of Bank of America provides integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients that include multi-nationals, correspondent banks, governments and global 1000 businesses. GTS services include treasury management, trade finance, foreign exchange, and short-term investing. Bank of America GTS is the number one treasury and trade services provider in the United States.

About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships with more than 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,500 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than eleven million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority-owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 85 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

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