Carreker Corporation Press Release - December 18, 2003

KeyCorp Selects Carreker’s Image Exchange and Image Quality Software

Agreement Affirms Key’s Goal to Be Part of the First Image Exchange Planned for Early 2004 with Carreker Development Partner Wells Fargo

DALLAS, TEXAS (December 18, 2003) — Carreker Corporation (Nasdaq: CANI), a leading provider of technology and consulting solutions for the financial industry, announced that KeyCorp, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services organizations, has selected Carreker’s image exchange and image quality software applications, ExchgLink™ and Image Inspector™. Key has agreed to be a Beta Partner for both products along with Wells Fargo Bank.

In September Carreker announced an ExchgLink™ development partnership with Wells Fargo. The schedule calls for Key and Wells Fargo to exchange images in 2004, using Carreker’s ExchgLink™ over the Distributive Traffic Agent (DTA) being developed by the Small Value Payments Co. (SVPCo) to handle volumes for the nation’s largest banks.

“Our customer commitment includes being at the forefront when it comes to technology that will enhance our clients’ experience,” said Mike Barnum, executive vice president, Client Services Group, KeyCorp. “Using Carreker’s image exchange and image quality products, we will provide our clients with faster and increased access to information, reduce their exposure to fraud and provide a more efficient payment process.”

“This represents a natural extension of our technology partnership with Carreker,” said David Harris, vice president, Key Technology Services, KeyCorp. “It provides a fully integrated solution that leverages our existing investment in electronic check presentment and image capture products from Carreker.”

John Carreker, president of Carreker’s Global Payments Technologies, said, “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Key, a long-time technology partner. We see this agreement as a significant validation of the industry strategy to build image exchange on the infrastructure already established for electronic check presentment. ExchgLink is the compatible and logical solution for Key since the bank already uses our ECP software, CheckLink™.”

J. D. (Denny) Carreker, chairman and CEO of Carreker Corporation, said, “The enactment of Check 21 has spurred leading banks like Key to seize the opportunity to establish a competitive advantage in the use of images. Image exchange is the first “domino” impact of Check 21, and we believe that the more quickly banks make image exchange the standard means of sharing check information, the more quickly they can reap the auxiliary rewards Check 21 promises. The Federal Reserve’s recent announcement to use SVPCo’s DTA for image exchange has effectively made SVPCo’s network the preferred industry network. Key’s commitment is setting the pace for other large banks.”

ExchgLink™ software will ultimately enable banks to truncate checks entirely and exchange only images. Image exchange will significantly reduce banks’ operations and transportation costs, and their exposure to payments fraud. At the same time, image exchange will enable banks to develop and offer new products that meet consumer and commercial customer demand for better funds availability and deposit flexibility.

Besides the basic functions of image send and receive, ExchgLink™ will also support item-level reconciliation; image quality assurance (by interfacing seamlessly with Carreker’s Image Inspector™ software); and back office functions (by interfacing with Carreker’s suite of image-enabled back office systems – Inbound Returns Express™, Adjustments Express™, and Exceptions Express™).

Image Inspector™ software is designed to analyze captured check images for business content deficiencies as well as physical flaws and flag and repair suspect items. It is a vital enabling technology for facilitating direct image exchange because with the advent of check truncation, banks will no longer have access to the paper check, making the quality of the captured images critical. Banks that capture check images can deploy Image Inspector™ software before the images are archived or transmitted to another bank or a customer. Archive providers can use Image Inspector™ software to verify the quality of images they receive from their user banks.

Approximately 50 percent of U.S. check processing volume is currently being imaged and committed to image archives, and that rate is expected to increase to 90 percent within a few years, according to a survey by Global Concepts Inc. Approximately 60 percent of check images archived by the top 50 banks in North America are stored by Carreker applications (when fully implemented), either at individual banks or in shared archives. Carreker offers the only image-enabled back office suite (for exceptions, adjustments, and return items, with a research offering in the works), a number of image-enabled fraud mitigation applications, and the first application in its image quality assurance suite.

About KeyCorp
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $84 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally. The company’s businesses deliver their products and services through KeyCenters and offices; a network of nearly 2,200 ATMs; telephone banking centers (1.800.KEY2YOU); and a Web site, Key.com,â that provides account access and financial products 24 hours a day.

About Carreker Corporation
Carreker Corporation improves earnings for financial institutions around the world. The Company’s integrated consulting and software solutions are designed to increase clients’ revenues and reduce their expenses, while improving security and increasing the value of their customer relationships. Carreker provides products and services to more than 250 clients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Clients include the full range of community, regional and large banks, among them more than 75 of the largest 100 banks in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, since 1978, Carreker Corporation also has offices around the world including London and Sydney. For more information, visit www.carreker.com.