Pace University renews contract to continue using Higher One's OneDisburse refundmanagment service

Higher One’s Refund Management disbursement service Continues to Provide Effective Results for University's Financial Aid Disbursement Process.

NEW HAVEN, CT, JUNE, 2006 - Higher One, a leading provider of customized financial services dedicated exclusively to the higher education market, today announced Pace University has renewed their contract with Higher One to continue use of their OneDisburse^® Refund Management Service through 2011.

"I feel we've always had a true partnership with Higher One" Said Mary Lieto, Director in the Offices of Finance & Administration at Pace University. "Today through our Pace OneCard program students receive their money faster and with greater choice while our business office staff has been relieved of many of the burdens associated with refund disbursements."

With OneDisburse, Pace's refund disbursements have been vastly simplified leading to an increase in service for students and a decrease in both physical and process costs associated with payments and exception handling. Pace first adopted OneDisburse ID in 2003. The service is provided to students through the Pace OneCard, which also serves as their student ID. Since program inception, Higher One has helped Pace make over 60 million in refund disbursements. This includes payments made to students OneAccounts, ACH transfers to other banks, and paper checks. Today more than seven thousand students actively use their Pace OneAccount. Higher One has also actively worked with Pace's SGA and students to support activities such as the 2005 Tsunami relief efforts.

"As one of our first customers, we have found great value in working with the Pace administration and students," said Dean Hatton, President and CEO, Higher One. "We believe the efficiencies created by our service will continue to result in faster and more cost-effective delivery of payments to students."

Higher One's OneDisburse Refund Management 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.

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. With forty-seven colleges and universities across the country having signed with Higher One to use the company's Refund Management Higher One provides a proven Refund Management that has helped its clients disburse more than $1.5 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, and can provide it upon request.

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.