Daytona Beach Community College Signs on to user Higher One's OneDisburse Refund Management Service

Higher One's Refund Management disbursement service is the Most Efficient, Student-centric and Cost-effective Way of Making Payments to Students

NEW HAVEN, CT, January 31, 2006 - Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the higher education market, today announced Daytona Beach Community College (DBCC) has signed on to use Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management. DBCC is the second community college in Florida to sign on with Higher One in the past eight months.

The overall campus card banking industry has recently experienced an increased interest from colleges and universities nationwide because institutions can improve their student services and decrease administrative costs, all at the same time. Additionally, utilizing Refund Management with an outside vendor helps the institution avoid IT and data security risks. Higher One's OneDisburse^® Refund Management disbursement service provides the perfect platform to deliver multiple services and convenience to today's student.

"We are very excited to begin working with Daytona Beach Community College," said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. "DBCC has seen the success Hillsborough Community College has had with our services and we look forward to providing them with the same results, while also broadening our reach in the Florida market."

DBCC plans to implement Higher One's OneDisburse^® ID Refund Management, which will help the college reduce administrative costs, streamline business processes, increase student choice and improve the student experience. DBCC students will have the opportunity to use the OneAccount, a free FDIC insured checking account. If students choose to utilize this option their DBCC Debit MasterCard® can be used worldwide everywhere MasterCard is accepted. DBCC expects to have their program fully implemented by June 2006.

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 college 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 college. With OneDisburse^® students will now have the choice 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.

"We at DBCC see Higher One's student Refund Management as a win-win," said Rand Spiwak, Executive Vice President, Daytona Beach Community College. "First, our students are better served, receiving a more timely disbursement of financial aid proceeds and tuition refunds. Secondly, our Accounts/Payable, Cash Management, and Bursar's staff will process nearly 18,000 fewer checks per year."

Leading the trend within higher education, New Haven, CT-based Higher One has become the standard of service for American higher education institutions looking for ways to improve the payment process and student experience. Higher One handles the entire process and manages any associated exceptions or customer service needs.

Thirty-four 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 more than a billion dollars through over half a million individual payments.

Refund Management provides institutions with an easy way to increase the percentage of payments that are made to students electronically. The desire to have payments made electronically is a growing trend that was recently acknowledged in some guidance from the Department of Education. According to ED, "Institutions are increasingly changing the way they disburse funds to students by moving away from issuing checks to transferring funds electronically." Refund Management is the easiest way for an institution to help students receive their money electronically while still allowing for the option to receive a paper check if the student desires.

ED states: "In response to this trend, several companies are offering services that include: Obtaining the student's authorization to perform electronic transfers; Transferring the funds electronically to the student's bank account; Opening a bank account for the student; Issuing debit cards in conjunction with a participating bank. Companies that contract with institutions to provide these types of services, in some instances, become third-party servicers. The regulations in 34 CFR 668.2 define a third-party servicer as an entity that contracts with an institution to administer any aspect of its Title IV programs. Thus, if an institution contracts with a company to perform activities that are the institution's responsibilities under the Title IV programs, the company is a third-party servicer. In the contract between the institution and the servicer, both parties must agree to comply with all statutory and regulatory provisions governing the Title IV programs and agree to be jointly and severally liable for any violation by the servicer of these provisions. Other items that the institution and servicer must agree to are described in 34 CFR 668.25 (c). Also, a third-party servicer must submit an annual audit of the activities it performs on behalf of the institution to the Department as specified in 34 CFR 668.23 (c)."

With its sole focus on higher education, Higher One completed a third-party servicer audit prior to the release of ED guidelines.

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.