Higher One - UNCW

Higher One Solution to Provide Comprehensive Refund Management That Reduce Costs and Increase Customer Service

NEW HAVEN, CT, September 19, 2005 - Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the higher education market, today announced University of North Carolina Wilmington has signed on to use Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management disbursement service. UNCW is the first school in North Carolina to use Higher One's services, making a total of 32 schools across the nation to use Higher One's Refund Management disbursement service.

At a time when universities are handling an ever increasing amount of refund disbursements, Higher One's program will provide UNCW a completely new, easier and more cost efficient way of handling refund disbursements. In fact, Higher One will handle all refund disbursements, related exception handling and customer service for the university. The university will be using the OneDisburse Non ID card, which will also offer the approximate 10,500 undergraduates the opportunity to utilize a free FDIC insured checking account called the OneAccount through Higher One, while also serving as a Debit MasterCard that can be used worldwide anywhere MasterCard is accepted. UNCW expects to complete setup of the new electronic funds disbursement, card and banking program by December.

"We are delighted that UNC Wilmington has decided to become the first school in North Carolina to sign on with Higher One," said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. "More importantly, we look forward to providing them with Refund Management service that not only alleviates costs but also makes the process a breeze for their students and administration."

Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management disbursement service is more than just payments; it streamlines the entire disbursement process. OneDisburse includes the handling of all disbursements, customer service, reconciliation and other time consuming functions - eliminating many costs associated with refund delivery for the university and increasing customer service for students. Higher One’s service is the only comprehensive Refund Management available today and features no setup costs, minimum involvement with schools' IT systems, and a unique revenue-sharing benefit for the university. With OneDisburse students can choose any of three options to receive financial aid and other refunds: direct deposit to the free OneAccount checking account, ACH to another bank checking account, or a paper check. No matter which method the student uses, Higher One handles the entire process, making the payment and managing any associated exceptions or customer service needs.

"Knowing first hand what Higher One's Refund Management disbursement service has done for many other campuses across the country, we believe their integrated solution will provide us with a much more streamlined way to process financial refunds and increase services available to our students, all while providing a financial savings to the university," said Kay Ward, senior associate vice chancellor of business affairs at UNCW.

"I believe that this program will be a great resource for our students. Especially for those students on financial aid, it will make their access to financial aid funds more flexible," said Bradley Ballou, president of the UNCW Student Government Association.

Higher One provides every client with program management to ease the setup process. Once up and running, Higher One services include the management of student refund preferences; collection and archiving of ACH authorization forms; exception handling; refund returns; rerouting of checks; refund reversals; reconciliation and archiving; customer service; and online reporting of refund statuses.

Higher One has been providing Refund Management to colleges and universities across the US since 2002. Higher One's program at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX generated $240,000 in net cost avoidance in the first semester alone, and after subtracting the initial costs of establishing a card office - produced about $400,000 in gross avoidance for the year. The State University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University have both documented substantial, measurable impacts on the institutional operations and were presented with the "2004 Best Practices Award" for their setup of Higher One's Refund Management disbursement service by the State University System of Georgia Board of Regents. 32 colleges and universities across the country have signed with Higher One to use the company's Refund Management. Since September 2002, Higher One has helped its clients disburse almost a billion dollars through more than 475,000 individual payments.

About Higher One

Founded in 2000, Higher One provides higher education institutions and their students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle financial disbursements. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses, as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors.

Higher One offers a suite of online banking services including the OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account, and OneCard, a Debit MasterCard^®. To date, Higher One has disbursed over $4 billion dollars in refunds for its clients to more than 1,000,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private higher education institutions throughout the country.

Higher One recently ranked # 85 on the 2007 Inc. List of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States. Higher One is based in New Haven, CT.