By bringing together the resources of both organizations into The Clearing House's Strategic Forum, the financial services industry now has one venue with broad membership and participation. Participants will collaborate on key payments issues, develop industry-wide solutions and coordinate efforts to eliminate potentially duplicative efforts.

"Uniting the talents and resources of BITS and The Clearing House benefits the entire industry by having one organization serve as the definitive forum for discussing new payments ideas and initiatives," said Catherine A. Allen, CEO of BITS. "This is a terrific opportunity for the financial services industry to speak with a single voice on payments issues of strategic importance."

Members of the BITS PSSC that are joining the Strategic Payments Forum include: Compass Bank, SunTrust, Synovus, Whitney Bank and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) in addition to 12 current owner banks of The Clearing House.

"As the payments business becomes more complex, it makes sense to combine the leadership, resources, and perspective of both industry groups to help financial institutions remain at the forefront of payments innovation," said Rick Leander, Executive Vice President of The Clearing House responsible for the Strategic Payments Forum. "With a single organization that represents the entire financial services industry, we can work together more productively to develop solutions for all institutions. We will be reaching out to additional financial institutions and industry groups over the next several months."

The expanded Strategic Payments Forum initially will be focused on a range of issues, including Mobile Payments, remittance standards for business-to- business payments, fraud and risk in the payments system and the migration of check to electronic payments.

"The financial services industry as a whole benefits by leveraging the collective payments experience and success of both organizations, their member financial institutions, and leading industry groups, such as the ICBA," said John Beran, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Comerica and a member of the governing body of both BITS and The Clearing House. "The Strategic Forum will be the industry venue that drives a broad based payments agenda."

Said Viveca Ware, Director, Payments & Technology Policy, ICBA: "Combining the talents and resources of these groups is the right way to work cooperatively and realize the many payments opportunities facing the financial services industry. We're pleased to be working with the Strategic Payments Forum on behalf of the nation's community banks."