This total represents 76.4% of the entire ARC transactions processed nationwide through the ACH Network during 2003 (based on the numbers published by the National Automated Clearinghouse Association for the four quarters ended December 31, 2003).

ARC represents the fastest growing type of ACH Network transactions, having grown 882.7% from the year-end totals for 2002. The accelerated growth of ARC can be attributed to the passage of Check-21, the recently passed law enabling the conversion of paper checks into electronic payments causing merchants and banks to more readily adopt fully electronic check processing systems.

"We are very proud to state, with more than three-fourths of the entire universe of the Account Receivable Conversions passing through our systems, that our ARC solution has become the de facto standard for the industry," said Terry Stepanik, President and Chief Operating Officer for UDW. "We feel that our dominance in ARC, along with our seamless integration of our Check-21 solution onto our ARC systems, will pave the way for our continued successes in a fully electronic payment processing environment."