In May, the Image Payments Network, the nation's leading, private-sector image payments system, reported the following highlights and volume:

• Wachovia was the first bank to send more than 1 million images in a single day, with 1.1 million items on May 30th
• BB&T began sending and receiving images on May 5th
• Bank of America began receiving images from the Federal Reserve through SVPCO
• 50.8 million in total monthly items, an increase of 44.4% compared to April 2006
• 2.3 million in daily average items, an increase of 31.2% compared to April 2006
• The peak day of the month was May 30, when 4.1 million items with a value of $12.4 billion were transmitted
• $6.9 billion in daily average dollar value, an increase of 10.1% compared to April 2006
• $151.8 billion in total monthly dollar value, an increase of 21.1% compared to April 2006
• Thirteen banks were exchanging images, in addition to significant volume being exchanged through the network's connection to the Federal Reserve

In May 2005, daily average items were 168,000 total monthly items were 3.5 million, daily average dollar volume was $1.4 billion, and monthly dollar volume was $28.9 billion.

"Volume through the Image Payments Network continues to exceed expectations as more institutions embrace image exchange," said George Thomas, Executive Vice President of The Clearing House. "SVPCO's projection of 50 million items a month by the end of 2006 was achieved in the first five months of the year. Given current growth rates, volume is expected to exceed 100 million images a month by the end of 2006."

Susan Long, Senior Vice President of The Clearing House, responsible for SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services said: "May was a milestone month for the Image Payments Network. Wachovia became the first institution to exceed 1 million images in a single day. Bank of America began receiving images from the Federal Reserve, and BB&T began full production. In addition, all- electronic transactions continued to grow and represent a majority of the transactions through the network. As we expected, IRD volume decreased and is likely to continue shrinking each month."

The Image Payments Network is succeeding in helping institutions of all sizes migrate from paper to electronic payments to realize the benefits of an all-electronic environment for check processing."

The Image Payments Network is a single, end-to-end system that provides unparalleled control, security and processing efficiency for transmitting and settling check images and other data directly between participants in the industry. The network enables financial institutions to exchange and settle check images peer-to-peer, without a cumbersome central processing system, thereby eliminating the expense of physically transporting paper checks.

Through May, institutions participating in the Image Payments Network were Bank of America, BB&T Comerica Bank, Fifth Third, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, LaSalle Bank, M&T Bank, National City Bank, Union Bank of California, Wachovia Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank. Through its relationship with the Federal Reserve, the Image Payments Network can reach more than 10,000 endpoints and help financial institutions of all sizes take advantage of image exchange.