First Financial, which has approximately $3.5 billion in assets, will replace its current outsourced solution with the in-house installation of Jack Henry's SilverLake system and key complementary products and services.

According to Doug Lefferson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, "We recently completed a comprehensive evaluation of the top-tier providers of in-house core processing solutions. Our evaluation, which lasted several months dating back into 2005, included an extensive RFP process. We identified Jack Henry as the technology partner and SilverLake as the technology platform most compatible with our bank. We expect in-house processing with SilverLake along with other comprehensive technology changes, will generate significant cost efficiencies and savings that we estimate at approximately $3 million to $4 million per year and anticipate fully recognizing in 2007. We also expect the move to SilverLake will provide enhanced commercial capabilities and enable us to deliver customer service in a better, faster, and more efficient manner. The satisfaction level of the existing SilverLake users that we visited also was an important factor in our decision process."

Tony Wormington, president of Jack Henry & Associations, said, "It is extremely rewarding when progressive mid-tier banks like First Financial Bancorp conduct thorough evaluations and ultimately select Jack Henry to support their near- and long-term technology needs. We believe that First Financial Bancorp selected Jack Henry based on our core competencies - competitively distinct core functionality, a company-wide commitment to service that translates into industry-leading levels of client satisfaction and retention, and an extensive suite of complementary products and services that enable banks to seamlessly respond to current and future industry trends, and their customer and market demands. We respect the effort and resources this bank invested in its evaluation process, and welcome the opportunity to provide its mission-critical technology."

In addition to SilverLake, First Financial Bancorp will initially install Jack Henry's teller and platform solutions, fraud detection and prevention system, and intelligence warehouse solution.