Students at Owens Community College to receive refunds faster due to electronic delivery

New Haven, CT – January 16, 2008 - Higher One, a financial services company focused exclusively on higher education, announced today that it is working with Owens Community College to streamline the refund distribution process through Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management.

"From an administrative perspective, Owens currently cuts over 22,000 refund checks per year,” explained Laurie Sabin, Associate Vice President, Finance at Owens Community College. “Our attempts to persuade students to use direct deposit have been largely unsuccessful. In addition to lower printing and mailing costs, our bank reconciliation process will also be simplified. More importantly, for accounting and financial aid, Owens audit responsibilities will end once the funds are transferred and the accompanying student information is sent.”

“Higher One provides a service to the students that is considered to be the best service available and a savings to the College,” said Christopher Bauerschmidt, Director of Business Services, Owens Community College.

Owens Community College, an institution with approximately 19,000 students located in Toledo, OH, joins over 90 other institutions of higher education around the country that have turned to Higher One to help them distribute these much needed funds to students. To date, the company has distributed over $3.2 billion in refunds totaling nearly 2.3 million refund transactions.

“We selected Higher One due to the outstanding reputation of the company and the high recommendations of other colleges,” said Lynn Uher, Bursar, Owens Community College.

With Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management, Owens will now issue 100% of its refunds electronically, giving students faster access to their refunds and the ability to use the money almost instantly to cover their back to school costs.

OneDisburse Refund Management provides students multiple ways of receiving their refunds from schools—including direct deposit to the OneAccount, Higher One’s FDIC-insured checking account tied to a Debit MasterCard®.

“This partnership offers numerous benefits to our students and administration,” described Sabin. “Over 65% of students receive financial aid and with Higher One, these students will get their refunds fast—with 24/7 service from an organization that specializes in refund management.”

Owens Community College will begin distributing refunds to students through Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management in March of this year.

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.