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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF

THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003

Commission file number 0-26123

ONLINE RESOURCES CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
     
Delaware   52-1623052
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)   (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)
 
7600 Colshire Drive    
McLean, Virginia   22102
(Address of principal executive offices)   (Zip code)
(703) 394-5100
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Title of Each Class

Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share

      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes x  No o

      Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.     x

      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2).  Yes x  No 

      As of June 30, 2003, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing sales price of the registrant’s common stock of $6.37 per share as reported on the Nasdaq National Market System, was approximately $97.4 million. As of February 12, 2003, the registrant had 17,924,472 shares of its common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

      The registrant intends to file a definitive proxy statement for its 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders pursuant to Regulation 14A within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003. Portions of such proxy statement are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.




 

ONLINE RESOURCES CORPORATION

FORM 10-K

TABLE OF CONTENTS

             
Page

PART I        
Item 1:
  Business     2  
Item 2:
  Properties     18  
Item 3:
  Legal Proceedings     19  
Item 4:
  Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders     19  
PART II        
Item 5:
  Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities     20  
Item 6:
  Selected Financial Data     21  
Item 7:
  Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations     22  
Item 7A:
  Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk     32  
Item 8:
  Financial Statements and Supplementary Data     33  
Item 9:
  Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure     51  
Item 9A:
  Controls and Procedures     51  
PART III        
Item 10:
  Directors and Executive Officers of the Company     51  
Item 11:
  Executive Compensation     51  
Item 12:
  Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management     51  
Item 13:
  Certain Relationships and Related Transactions     51  
Item 14:
  Principal Accountant Fees and Services     51  
PART IV        
Item 15:
  Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules, and Reports on Form 8-K     52  
Signatures     56  
Index to financial statements     33  


 

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

      In addition to historical information, this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “potential,” “continue,” the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially from any forward-looking statement. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors, including the risks outlined under “Risk Factors” in Item 1 of Part I.

      Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.


 

PART I

Item 1.     Business Overview

      Online Resources Corporation is an outsourcer of Internet banking and payment services to over 600 financial institutions nationwide. We own and operate the critical banking, payments and marketing infrastructure that enable our clients to provide their customers with end-to-end Internet channel functionality and a high quality user experience. Our services, branded to our financial institution clients, power approximately 100 million transactions and $8 billion in consumer bill payments annually.

      Our clients are primarily regional and community-based depository financial institutions with assets of $10 billion or less. Regional and community financial institutions serve over half of the nation’s retail checking accounts, but often lack the internal resources to build or operate Internet-based remote financial services. We enable these clients to offer services through the Internet channel on a cost effective basis and without the resource commitment of building and supporting the infrastructure internally.

      Depending on their needs, our financial institution clients choose one of our two primary product lines: full service, which includes a suite of Internet banking, bill payment, call center and other support services, or stand-alone bill payment and presentment services. One third of our implemented financial institution clients use our full suite of services, while the rest use our stand-alone bill payment services. Our full service Internet banking clients typically pay us a recurring monthly fee based on the number of their customers who use our services. Our stand-alone bill payment clients also typically pay us a recurring monthly fee based on their number of customers and, in some cases, pay us an additional fee per payment transaction. In addition, they typically pay us a one-time implementation fee to link our respective systems, allowing their customers to connect to us through the Internet.

      The customers of our full service clients may access our proprietary banking service, which allows them to view account statements and balances of accounts maintained with our clients, and perform funds transfers and certain other funds management functions. These customers may also use our bill payment and presentment services, allowing them to pay any bill automatically. Our banking and bill payment services are complemented by our call center, database services, consumer marketing, web site design and hosting and other support services, giving our clients the benefit of a single, integrated solution. We help our clients drive increased adoption of Internet-based services and create a profitable Internet channel through our extensive consumer marketing capabilities. We also back our services with a comprehensive end-to-end service quality guarantee.

      Our bill payment services are built on patented debit architecture that we believe offers substantial cost and quality advantages. By connecting to our clients through online payments networks, we realize the advantage of real-time, guaranteed debits in reducing paper remittances and improving the speed of payments. We have certified over 50 online payment networks, commonly known as electronic funds transfer, or EFT networks, operated by both core processors and ATM networks, potentially allowing us access to approximately 95% of U.S. consumer checking accounts. We believe our patented EFT connectivity is unique and has broad applications for payments products beyond the payment of bills.

      As of December 31, 2003, we provided services to approximately 841,000 customers of our 633 client financial institutions. These 633 financial institutions collectively serve an aggregate of approximately 19.5 million retail accounts, including approximately 10.6 million checking accounts.

      We are a Delaware corporation with our principal executive offices located at 7600 Colshire Drive, McLean, Virginia. Our telephone number is 703-394-5100 and our website address is www.orcc.com. We make available free of charge through the Investor Relations section of our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We include our web address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K only as an inactive textual reference and do not intend it to be an active link to our website.

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Industry Background

      The outlook for the e-financial services industry continues to be vigorous with consumers and small businesses increasingly banking online because of the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week convenience and related processing cost savings. In its December 2003 report, Jupiter Media Matrix, a technology research and advisory firm, estimated that 31.4 million U.S. households banked online in 2003, and that the number of U.S. households banking online will more than double to 54.6 million by 2007.

      Today, the overwhelming majority of U.S. financial institutions with more than $100 million in assets have adopted the Internet as a means of delivering financial services to their customers. Financial institutions recognize the advantages offered by online delivery systems, including the opportunity to offer their services to targeted audiences while reducing or eliminating workload, paper and other back office expenses associated with traditional distribution channels. Additionally, these solutions provide financial institutions the opportunity to gain market share by attracting new customers and then increase profitability by more successfully retaining them. In 2003, the Boston Consulting Group and Forrester Research, financial research and advisory firms, both conducted studies concluding that the profitability of online bill payment consumers over a 12 month period was up to 40 percent higher than those consumers who did not pay bills online, due to increases in the number of accounts and balances.

      Historically, very large financial institutions have been the drivers of the online banking trend. Regional and community financial institutions were compelled to offer comparable services to remain competitive. Initially, there were many obstacles in making e-financial services available to their customers. In particular, they often lacked the capital and human resources required to develop and manage the technology infrastructure to provide their customers with online banking services.

      Today, however, the picture is very different. With the majority of financial institutions having already adopted the Internet, either by developing the capability in-house or outsourcing to one of several providers, there are new obstacles:

  •  Managing technology vendors, which could mean multiple relationships in order to provide online banking, bill payment and other services;
 
  •  Providing integrated customer support for their online banking services to an increasingly sophisticated consumer base;
 
  •  Understanding how to evaluate channel profitability and/or return on investment; and
 
  •  Maximizing the value of the channel by increasing adoption through consumer marketing and other means.

      As a service provider, we believe that we must help our financial institution clients to meet these challenges as a part of inducing them to choose, or switch to, our solution for providing competitive online banking and payments services.

The Online Resources Solution

      We provide a single source, fully integrated solution through our QuotienSM e-financial suite of services, which we believe enables depository financial institutions to offer the breadth of financial services needed to remain competitive as well as profit from their Internet channel. We bring economies of scale and technical expertise to our clients, who would otherwise lack the resources to compete in the rapidly changing, complex financial services industry. We differentiate ourselves by internally developing, integrating and controlling many critical services, such as bill payment, consumer marketing and call center support, rather than relying primarily on third-party providers for these services. As a single source vendor, we believe our clients benefit from having one point of accountability and control. We believe our solution provides our clients with a cost-

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effective means to retain and expand their customer base, deliver their services more efficiently and strengthen their customer relationships. We provide our services through:

      Our Technology Infrastructure. We provide our QuotienSM e-financial suite of services by connecting our financial institution clients, their customers and other financial service providers through our integrated communications, systems, processing and support capabilities. Our middleware enables us to integrate customer and financial data in order to coordinate customer authorization, transactions, settlement, security, user profiles, data warehousing, database marketing, registration, fulfillment, administrative support and our customer call center services. These functions operate substantially in real-time and provide an integrated application for our clients and their customers.

      Our Operating and Technical Expertise. We provide regional and community based depository financial institutions with our operating and technical expertise. We believe that our industry focus and outsourcing capabilities add value for our clients by simplifying complex processes and technologies. After more than a decade of operating experience, we have established the processes, procedures, controls and staff necessary to keep our systems running reliably and securely. At the same time, we have developed the organizational flexibility and staff relationships necessary to adjust to a rapidly changing environment.

      Our Consumer Contact Services. We drive the Internet channel through the entire user lifecycle, using Integrated Consumer Management (ICM) a unique process that combines cutting-edge customer relationship management technology with our multiple consumer touch-points. Marketing costs are born by or shared with our clients. The marketing programs include web-based marketing, direct marketing, telemarketing, statement stuffers and branch incentives. We privately brand the marketing programs for our financial institution clients so that they may take advantage of their existing relationships.

      Our Support Services. We provide a comprehensive set of support services to complement our Internet banking and bill payment services. These support services include our call center, web site design and hosting, training, professional services and administrative services. We provide each of these services on an optional basis and have fully integrated them into our service platform.

Strategy

      Our goal is to become the vendor of choice for regional and community-based banks, thrifts and credit unions who outsource remote delivery of consumer and small business e-financial services. We position ourselves as a single, outsourced solution to our financial institution clients, providing them our Internet banking and bill payment services, and other complementary e-financial services. Our consumer and small business services and content are further supported by our proprietary infrastructure and support services, such as our call center, consumer marketing, real-time payments processing, customization and other professional services.

      We believe our offering gives our clients the advantage of a single point-of-contact, an end-to-end service quality guarantee, relatively seamless customer care, packaged pricing advantages, and integrated data for consumer marketing and service enhancement purposes. Approximately one-third of our implemented financial institution clients use our full suite of services, while the rest use our stand-alone bill payment services. Both enjoy the benefit of our real-time debit capabilities, integrated customer care, and relatively high percentage of electronic remittances.

      We have grown our business organically and developed by December 31, 2003, a base of 633 financial institution clients, who have typically entered into two to five year service contracts. They typically pay us based on their number of users and volume of transactions, as well as on the number of products and services used. Our primary strategy, therefore, is to focus on our substantial existing client base, and to promote Internet banking usage and the cross-selling of our proprietary bill payment services. Also important is our goal to retain and add to our client base, expanding our distribution channel for an integrated suite of e-financial transaction, cultivation and communication services.

      We have become profitable but believe that our shareholders, clients, employees and partners still place a high premium on our ability to increase and sustain our profitability. Our business model is driven by financial

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and operating leverage derived from earning largely recurring user and transaction fees spread over our relatively fixed cost base. Therefore, our near-term efforts center on:

  •  Increasing adoption of our Internet banking services among the customers of our 211 full service clients, who have approximately 2.5 million checking account and 2.1 million non-checking account relationships;
 
  •  Cross-selling our proprietary bill payment, as well as other services, to those Internet banking users;
 
  •  Cross-selling our bill payment, as well as other services, to the customers of our 422 stand-alone bill payment clients, who have approximately 8.1 million checking account and 6.8 million non-checking account relationships;
 
  •  Retaining and expanding the financial institution distribution channel for our services, particularly by attracting clients who wish to replace another provider, bringing with them an already established base of Internet banking and bill payment customers; and
 
  •  Controlling our costs by keeping growth in our overhead expenses low, gaining operating efficiencies through ongoing automation and process improvement efforts, and creating further standardization of our technology infrastructure.

      Though near-term growth in profitability is an important objective, we recognize, and are investing in, a number of strategic initiatives that we believe will result in high, sustainable profitability. These include:

      Consumer Marketing. We have invested heavily in a variety of consumer marketing capabilities where we materially supplement the marketing efforts of our client institutions. These programs are fully funded or co-funded by our clients, with the goal of increasing customer adoption and converting the Internet into a cost-effective means to promote and deliver a profitable set of financial services. Our integrated consumer management process makes extensive use of multiple consumer touch-points and data derived from our banking and bill payment applications to drive consumers through the online banking user lifecycle from activation to retention. These consumer touch-points include real-time personalized and targeted messages within our banking application, use of our call center, targeted emails, and offline media. Our database capabilities include data mining, analysis, campaign management and data integration. All of our consumer marketing efforts use patented methods for the collection and analysis of confidential banking and bill payment data that are fully self-contained and compliant with privacy laws.

      Strategic New Products. We believe our large business base of 633 financial institutions with its potential of approximately 20 million consumer relationships represents an attractive distribution channel for the additional financial services and content provided by us and by our third-party partners. Therefore, we will continue our strategy to cross-sell new products to clients with the goal of increasing the recurring revenue per customer. In the later half of 2003, we introduced a package of premium online financial services called Money HQSM, which includes account aggregation, bill presentment, inter-bank funds transfer, person-to-person payments and alerts. The new services are tightly integrated within our existing online banking and bill payment services and leverage our real-time financial transaction processing over the Internet. A limited number of financial institutions were launched on this service at the end of 2003. We believe that we can further leverage patented payments architecture to develop additional new products and services. By the end of 2003, we were processing approximately 100 million in annual transactions and our bill payment service was processing over $8 billion in consumer payments per year. The increased volume and efficiency of these transactions not only is critical to our business, but also will generate potentially valuable data using our patented method for confidential messaging without compromising consumer privacy. This data can be extracted using various data mining and aggregation tools and techniques, and packaged for new personalized products and services.

      Enhanced Technology Infrastructure. We believe that the scope and integration of our technology-based services gives us a competitive advantage. Our data center and front-end web server-based technology is integrated with our back-end payments processing and multiple databases through middleware and a set of

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tools that manage it completely. We continue to standardize protocols and interfaces to both internal and external content and services in order to more effectively integrate additional capabilities.

      Other Strategic Initiatives. While we have built our business organically, without mergers or acquisitions, we have relied on partnerships and alliances to augment our growth and provide critical technologies. These include both software providers and core processors who resell our Internet banking and payment services. We have relationships with specialized technology providers in cases where we believe we are better off using third-party technology for a portion of our service than developing it ourselves. We also have product partnerships where third-party software and services are integrated into our platform. We intend to further develop both existing and new partnerships, as well as pursue merger and acquisition opportunities to supplement our organic growth.

Our Services

      We offer our outsourced services under the QuotienSM brand to our client financial institutions, which in turn brand them under the financial institution’s name. Client financial institutions typically contract with us for one of two major service lines: full service, consisting of our integrated suite Internet banking, bill payment, call center and other support services; or stand-alone bill payment and presentment service, which is unbundled from our full service suite. In addition, we offer a number of complementary e-financial services, such as cash management, and additional functionality from third-party providers that enhance our solution. Finally, we offer professional services to support new client and product implementations, as well as customization.

      Most of our services generate revenue from recurring monthly fees charged to financial institution clients, typically based on the number of customers they have using our system. The pricing of these services to customers is at the discretion of each financial institution. Because our clients generally derive internal cost savings, account retention and other return on investment and marketing benefits by offering our services, the majority of our clients do not pass all of these charges through to their customers, and most of our clients offer the banking portion of our services free-of-charge.

Full Service Suite

      Our QuotienSM Internet Banking and Bill Payment service provides a comprehensive set of online services for a financial institution’s customers. The services include the following features:

  •  Viewing transaction histories and real-time account balances;
 
  •  Transferring funds within and between financial institutions either immediately or in the future;
 
  •  “Pay anyone” functionality by initiating immediate and future bill payments or transfers;
 
  •  Accessing account information and initiating transactions through Intuit’s Quicken application;
 
  •  Guaranteed, real-time payments and transfers through the patented EFT gateway; and
 
  •  Viewing projected balances based upon bill payment and account activities.
 
  •  For customers who register for Money HQ: aggregating online financial accounts from other financial service providers, viewing bills from these accounts, transferring funds between accounts, making payments to individuals via email, and setting balance and due date alerts.

      Using our bill payment service, Internet banking customers may pay any merchant biller or individual. Approximately 65% of our bill payments are currently made electronically to merchants. We guarantee electronic bill payments will be received by the payee within two business days of initiation by the customer. We guarantee paper check payments will be received by the payee within five business days. Paper and electronic payments are drawn on our escrow account. As of December 31, 2003, we had a bill payment database of approximately 634,000 discrete merchants.

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      We believe our real-time debit process offers substantial cost and quality advantages in our bill payment services. Under alternative batch-oriented debit systems, the bill payment processor cannot immediately verify the availability of sufficient funds to cover the bill payment. This may result in potential collections issues, the need to assess credit risk and increased use of paper versus electronic payments. We therefore believe that real-time debit capability results in a higher percentage of electronic payments, lower operating costs and a higher quality of service.

Stand-Alone Bill Payment and Presentment Services

      Our QuotienSM Internet Bill Payment Service is an unbundled version of the bill payment service featured in our full service suite of services. It is unique in the industry because it leverages the banking industry’s EFT infrastructure for online payments. By leveraging this patented technology, our clients take advantage of existing trusted systems, security, clearing, settlement, regulations and procedures. Users of QuotienSM Internet Bill Payment Service also benefit from a secure, reliable real-time direct link to their accounts. As in our full service suite, customers schedule transactions and view balances via our intuitive web user interface, which is branded for the financial institution. We provide users of this service with complete support and payment inquiry processing through our call center. Additionally, users of this service can register for Money HQ, which includes account aggregation, bill presentment, inter-bank funds transfer, person-to-person payments and alerts.

      Our QuotienSM Remittance Service is an attractive add-on service for financial institutions of all sizes that run their own in-house online banking system or other providers of Internet banking solutions that do not have a bill payment infrastructure. It provides their system with the extra functionality of bill payment processing, and is backed by complete funds settlement, payment research, inquiry resolution, and merchant services. Customers provide bill payment instructions via their existing online banking interface, which validates the availability of funds on the date bills are to be paid. If funds are available, the user’s account is debited and a designated clearing account is credited. On a daily basis, we receive a file of all bill payment requests and we respond immediately, processing bill payment requests and remitting payments to designated merchants. We return a file of transaction confirmations, error descriptions, and data updates. Additionally we provide instant access to comprehensive payment processing and status information through our web-based Payment IQ system.

Other Complementary e-financial Services

      Our QuotienSM Cash Management service is a key component of our business banking service offering. Through customized software developed by Magnet Communications, Inc. and integrated into our platform, we provide added value in a number of ways. QuotienSM Cash Management’s comprehensive application platform provides financial institutions with additional leverage to attract a greater spectrum of business customers. And, as it helps them build their business base, QuotienSM Cash Management can help them retain that base with a highly flexible selection of applications, compelling support features, 24 hours a day, seven days a week online accessibility, and a secure environment. Just as important, QuotienSM Cash Management provides additional revenue opportunities through fee-based transactions such as ACH, balance reporting, wire transfers, book transfers, and stop payments.

      Our QuotienSM Customer Care service provides critical “high touch” customer support to the consumer and small business users of our services, all branded in our financial institution client’s name. We maintain a customer service center for financial institution clients that choose to outsource this service to us. Customers can access the customer service operation by phone or e-mail 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As of December 31, 2003, our customer service center had over 100 employees available to respond to customers’ questions relating to enrollment, transactions or technical support. Customer care services generate revenue from recurring monthly fees charged to financial institution clients, typically based on the number of enrolled customers.

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      Our QuotienSM Web Design and Hosting capabilities give clients an integrated, outsourced solution for their informational web site. We charge an upfront fee for design which is recognized as revenue immediately and a recurring monthly maintenance fee for hosting the web site which is recognized monthly.

      Our QuotienSM Training Services fit the needs of our clients, ranging from operational training to service-oriented sales workshops. Our training services team develops and delivers effective and professional programs in banking, operations, call centers, sales and communications for our clients. We generally charge our clients on an hourly basis for these services and revenue is recognized when services are completed.

      Our QuotienSM Integrated Consumer Management Support provides consumer marketing capabilities to our clients to help maximize adoption and usage of their Internet channel by their customers. We have developed a customer relationship management approach designed to motivate customers to sign up for Internet banking, begin using Internet banking, sign up for Internet bill payment and, finally, to continue ongoing usage of the Internet channel. We employ a variety of offline, online and call center based marketing programs to contact the customers and influence their use of our clients’ Internet channel. We charge our clients on a marketing program basis when they are completed and revenue is recognized when services are provided.

      Our QuotienSM Administrative Services provides administrative and MIS support services to our financial institution clients including the compilation of customized reports regarding their customers’ account activity. We generally charge our clients on an hourly basis for these services and revenue is recognized when earned.

Enhancing Third-Party Services

      We facilitate customers’ linking to additional service capabilities and content that are provided or controlled outside of our platform by third parties who enhance our QuotienSM suite of services. The following services are available or scheduled for launch within the next twelve months.

  •  Fully integrated bill payment and account retrieval through Intuit’s Quicken®;
 
  •  Check ordering, available through either Harland, Deluxe, Clarke American or Liberty;
 
  •  Inter-institution funds transfer and account aggregation, provided by CashEdge;
 
  •  Check imaging, provided by AFS, Bisys, FiServ, FSI/ Vsoft, Empire, Intercept, and Mid-Atlantic; and
 
  •  Statement through BIT Statement.

      To provide our clients with a business application and complement our cash management offering, we provide “small office/ home office” capabilities and have partnered with Intuit to support Quicken online access.

      We have also developed business arrangements and links to third parties for expanded customer access. We currently have such arrangements with third-party access providers, typically banking and credit union software providers such as Ultradata (a subsidiary of Harland), Aftech and Users, Inc. (subsidiaries of Fiserv), and Symitar (a subsidiary of Jack Henry).

      By aggregating the customers of our financial institution clients into a large online community, we believe we have begun to assemble an attractive audience for third parties to market their products and services. In cooperation with our financial institution clients, we believe that over time this aggregated community will generate significant buying power and could attract many additional third-party providers.

Professional Services

      The majority of our professional services are implementation services, consisting of systems integration work. At the time of entering into a contract, the financial institution client pays a one-time fee, which generally ranges from $2,500 to $25,000, depending on the size and complexity of the implementation. A project management team is assembled to integrate our platform with a financial institution client’s legacy host system, typically via an ATM network or a direct host communications interface. A financial institution’s

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legacy host system houses its transaction accounts. Upon completion of systems integration, we conduct a testing period using selected customers and employees of the client financial institution. Following the testing, the financial institution client is fully launched and services are made available to its customers. Generally, at this point, the financial institution client begins to pay at least the minimum service fees. For clients who are linked to the over 50 core processors and ATM networks with whom we are certified, implementation typically takes 90 to 180 days between signing and launch.

      Additionally, we offer professional services intended to tailor our services to meet the financial institution’s specific needs. Our financial institution clients generally pay us an hourly rate for these customization services.

Institutional Sales and Marketing

      In addition to our extensive consumer marketing capabilities to drive customer adoption and cross-selling, we seek to retain and expand our financial institution client base, which serves as a distribution channel for our consumer and small business online financial services. Our client services function consists of a 14 person team of account managers who support and cross-sell our services to existing financial institution clients and an 11 person sales team focusing on new financial institution prospects.

      Our account management team focuses primarily on helping our clients increase the profitability of their Internet channel. They do this by introducing our extensive consumer marketing capabilities and supporting our clients’ own marketing programs. The account management team also cross-sells our clients to new and enhanced services, and was responsible for almost 1,000 sales events in 2003. This team also handles contract renewals and supports our clients in resolving operating issues.

      Our sales team focuses on new client acquisition, either through direct contact with prospects or through our network of reseller relationships. Our target prospects are typically regional and community-based banks, thrifts and credit unions who are either looking to replace their current Internet banking or bill payment solution, and institutions who have no existing capability. We believe that our suite of services is especially attractive to prospects whose Internet solution has limited capabilities, or who seek a more integrated set of banking, bill payment, call center, marketing and other services. Further, we offer these prospects a single point of accountability backed by our unique end-to-end service guarantee, which covers access systems availability, response time, payments speed and quality, problem resolution, call center access and other service functions that we own, operate and control.

Systems and Technology

      Overview. We designed our systems and technology around real-time communications and processing, which optimizes quality, scalability and cost. Our systems are based on a multi-tiered architecture consisting of:

  •  Front-end servers — proprietary and commercial communications software and hardware providing Internet and private communications access to our platform for customers;
 
  •  Middleware — proprietary and commercial software and hardware used to integrate customer and financial data and to process financial transactions;
 
  •  Back-end systems — databases and proprietary software which support our banking and bill payment services;
 
  •  Support systems — proprietary and commercial systems supporting our customer service and other support services; and
 
  •  Enabling technology — software enabling clients and their customers to easily access our platform.

      Our systems architecture is designed to provide customer access into a common database integrated with our banking and bill payment services and our proprietary support services software. Third-party financial services are linked to our systems through the Internet, which we integrate into our customer application and

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transaction processing. Incorporating such third-party capabilities into our system, enable us to focus our technical resources on our proprietary middleware and integrating capabilities.

      Connectivity for Real-Time Financial Information and Online Payments. We typically link to our client financial institutions in two ways; we operate an information gateway to gather customer account information and we operate an EFT payment gateway for online debits, settlement authentication and limited supplemental financial information. We believe that our extensive connectivity to financial institutions is unique, particularly our EFT gateway component that links to the online payments infrastructure of core processors and ATM networks.

      By using an online payment network to link into a financial institution client’s primary database for customer accounts, we take advantage of established electronic funds transfer infrastructure. This includes all telecommunications and software links, security, settlements and other critical operating rules and processes. Using this real-time payments architecture, financial institution clients avoid the substantial additional costs necessary to expand their existing infrastructure. The net result of using this architecture is that high quality remote financial electronic commerce services can be provided, enabling customers to access their financial account information and pay bills by debiting funds from their accounts.

      In addition to quality and cost benefits associated with bill payment, we believe that our real-time architecture is more scalable than traditional batch systems, which warehouse and store duplicate data. Instead of duplicating each financial institution’s host system by daily batch transmittal of customer balance information, we communicate in real-time through EFT networks and directly to our clients or their core processors to retrieve account balances as needed.

      Security and Systems Integrity. Our services and related products are designed to provide security and system integrity, based on Internet and other communications standards, EFT network transaction processing procedures, and banking industry standards for control and data processing. Prevailing security standards for Internet-based transactions are incorporated into our Internet services, including but not limited to, Secure Socket Layer 128K encryption, using public-private key algorithms developed by RSA Security, along with firewall technology for secure transactions. In the case of payment and transaction processing, we meet security transaction processing and other operating standards for each EFT network or core processor through which we route transactions. Additionally, we have established a business resumption plan to ensure that our technical services and operating infrastructure could be resumed within an acceptable time frame should some sort of business interruption affect our data center. Furthermore, management receives feedback on the sufficiency of security and controls built into our information technology, payment processing, and customer support processes from independent reviews such as semi-annual network penetration tests, an annual SAS70 — Type II Examination, periodic FFIEC examinations, and internal audits.

Proprietary Rights

      Patents are important to our business; no particular patent is so important, however, that its loss would significantly adversely affect our operations as a whole.

      In June 1993, we were awarded U.S. patent number 5,220,501 covering our real-time EFT network-based payments process. This patent covers bill payment and other online payments made from the home using any enabling device where the transaction is routed in real-time through an EFT network. We have licensed this patent to other parties for limited use. In March 1995 we cross-licensed this patent to Citibank for their internal use in settlement of litigation.

      On February 9, 1999, we were awarded U.S. patent number 5,870,724 for targeting advertising in a home banking delivery service. This patent provides for the targeting of advertising or messaging to home banking users, using their confidential bill payment and other financial information, while preserving consumer privacy. Acting in cooperation and on behalf of a financial institution client, we first analyze their bill payment and other financial data to determine an advertising profile or purchasing power. The patent provides for the targeted advertisement or other message to the selected person or group based on their profile. No third parties gain access to the customers’ sensitive financial data. Through interactive messaging, selected customers of

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our financial institutions receiving the advertisement or message then have the choice of releasing their names to the advertiser or messenger. The confidentiality of their sensitive financial information is thereby preserved and released only with the approval of the financial institution client and their customers.

      On March 13, 2001, we were awarded U.S. patent number 6,202,054 that is a continuation of U.S. patent number 5,220,501. The continuation expands and clarifies the claims in that patent thereby increasing its applicability and usefulness. For example, the continuation broadens the original narrow definitions: PIN is replaced by user identification info; ATM network is replaced by inter-bank financial services network; debit becomes debit or credit.

      In addition to our patents, we have registered trademarks. A significant portion of our systems, software and processes are proprietary. Accordingly, as a matter of policy, all management and technical employees execute non-disclosure agreements as a condition of employment.

Competition

      We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market are industry trust, technical capabilities, operating effectiveness, cost and scalability, customer service, security, speed to market, and capital. Many of our competitors have the financial, technical and marketing resources, plus established industry relationships, to better compete based on these factors. Competitive pressures we face may have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results.

      We are not aware of any other company that offers a similar suite of Internet banking and payment services that fully integrates support services and online payment links to other financial service providers. However, many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger installed customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources. Further, some of our more specialized competitors, such as CheckFree, while currently targeting bill payment services to large financial institutions, may increasingly direct their marketing initiatives towards our targeted smaller financial institution client base.

      Other competitors that serve primarily smaller depository financial institutions, such as Jack Henry, Metavante, EDS, Fiserv and other core banking processors, have large distribution channels that bundle broader services and products for their clients. These competitors also have developed or acquired Internet banking capabilities of their own, including a bill payment service in the case of Metavante, which may be further expanded to exceed or meet our capabilities.

      In addition, a significant number of companies offer portions of the services provided by us and compete directly with us to provide such services. For example, the web servers of companies such as Digital Insight, FundsXpress and S1 Corporation compete with our front-end Internet banking capabilities. These companies may in turn use bill payment providers, such as CheckFree, Princeton eCom, and Metavante, to compete with our full service offering. There are also other software providers such as Intelidata, Corillian and Sybase Financial Fusion that market their software to large financial institutions, that may seek to penetrate our targeted regional and community banking market.

      There are also Internet financial service providers who target non-banking firms, who may target our depository financial institution market. These potential competitors support brokerage firms, credit card issuers, insurance and other financial service companies. There are also Internet financial portals, such as Quicken.com, Yahoo Finance and MSN, who offer bill payment and aggregate consumer financial information from multiple financial institutions. Suppliers to these remote financial service providers potentially compete with us.

Government Regulation

      We are not licensed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration or other federal or state agencies that regulate or supervise depository institutions or other providers of financial services. We are subject to examination by federal depository

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institution regulators under the Bank Service Company Act, and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 1999, among other regulations. As such, we have agreed to periodic examinations by these agencies and these agencies have broad supervisory authority to remedy any shortcomings identified in any such examination.

      We are also subject to encryption and security export laws and regulations that, depending on future developments, could render our business or operations more costly, less efficient or impossible.

      Federal, state or foreign agencies may attempt to regulate our activities. Congress could enact legislation that would require us to comply with consumer privacy, data, record keeping, processing and other requirements. The Federal Reserve Board may adopt new rules and regulations for electronic funds transfers that could lead to increased operating costs and could also reduce the convenience and functionality of our services, possibly resulting in reduced market acceptance. Because of the growth in the electronic commerce market, Congress has held hearings on whether to regulate providers of services and transactions in the electronic commerce market, and Federal or state authorities could enact laws, rules or regulations affecting our business operations. We also may be subject to Federal, state and foreign money transmitter laws, encryption and security export laws and regulations and state and foreign sales and use tax laws. If enacted or deemed applicable to us, such laws, rules or regulations could be imposed on our activities or our business thereby rendering our business or operations more costly, burdensome, less efficient or impossible, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

      The market we currently target, depository financial institutions, is subject to extensive and complex Federal and state regulation. Our current and prospective clients, which consist of financial institutions such as commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions, brokerage firms, credit card issuers, consumer finance companies, other loan originators, insurers and other providers of retail financial services, operate in markets that are subject to extensive and complex Federal and state regulations and oversight. While we are not generally subject to such regulations, our services and related products must be designed to work within the extensive and evolving regulatory constraints in which our clients operate. These constraints include Federal and state truth-in-lending disclosure rules, state usury laws, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, the Financial Services Modernization Act, the Bank Service Company Act, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, privacy and information security regulations, laws against unfair or deceptive practices, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and other state and local laws and regulations. Because many of these regulations were promulgated before the development of our system, the application of such regulations to our system must be determined on a case-by-case basis. We do not make representations to clients regarding the applicable regulatory requirements, but instead rely on each such client making its own assessment of the applicable regulatory provisions in deciding whether to become a client. Furthermore, some consumer groups have expressed concern regarding the privacy, security and interchange pricing of financial electronic commerce services. It is possible that one or more states or the Federal government may adopt laws or regulations applicable to the delivery of financial electronic commerce services in order to address these or other privacy concerns. We cannot predict the impact that any such regulations could have on our business.

      We currently offer services on the Internet. It is possible that laws and regulations may be enacted with respect to the Internet, covering issues such as user privacy, pricing, content, characteristics and quality of services and products. The adoption of any such laws or regulations may limit the growth of the Internet, which could affect our ability to utilize the Internet to deliver financial electronic commerce services.

Employees

      At December 31, 2003, we had 299 employees. None of our employees are represented by a collective bargaining arrangement. We believe our relationship with our employees is good.

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RISK FACTORS

      You should carefully consider the following risk factors in your evaluation of us. Our business and results of operations could be seriously harmed by any of the following risks. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and you may lose part or all of your investment.

Prior to the third quarter of 2002, we had a history of net losses; we have achieved net income profitability for five of six quarters since and cannot be sure that we will be profitable in future periods.

      Although we achieved profitability under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, in the third quarter of 2002, we cannot be certain that we can be profitable in future periods. As of December 31, 2003, we had an accumulated deficit of $82.9 million. Although we believe we have achieved economies of scale, if growth in our revenues does not significantly outpace the increase in our expenses, we may not be profitable in future periods.

Our quarterly financial results are subject to fluctuations and could cause our stock price to fluctuate.

      Our quarterly revenues, expenses and operating results may vary from quarter to quarter in the future based upon a number of factors, many of which are not within our control. Our revenue model is based largely on recurring revenues derived from actual customer counts. The number of our total customers is affected by many factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the number of new user registrations, customer turnover, loss of clients, and general consumer trends. Our results of operations for a particular period may be adversely affected if the revenues based on the number of customers forecasted for that period are less than expected. As a result, our operating results may fall below market analysts’ expectations in some future quarters, which could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our stock.

We may need to raise capital in order to accelerate revenue and profit growth.

      Although we achieved positive income in the year 2003 and we believe that we have sufficient capital resources to meet our operating needs during 2004, we may require additional infusions of capital to sustain operations after 2004. This capital may not be available on favorable terms, or at all. We may need to raise additional funds sooner than we expect if we incur unforeseen required capital expenditures or substantial operating losses. If adequate funds are not available or are not available on acceptable terms, we may not be able to develop or enhance our services, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The number of customers using our services may not continue to increase.

      There is no guarantee that the number of customers using our services will continue to increase. Because our fee structure is designed to establish recurring revenues through monthly usage by customers of our financial institution clients, our recurring revenues are dependent on the acceptance of our services by customers and their continued use of online banking, bill payment and other financial services. Failing to retain the existing customers and the change in spending patterns and budgetary resources of financial institutions and their customers will affect our operating results.

We depend upon our financial institution clients to market our services.

      To market our services to customers, we depend upon our financial institution clients. We generally charge our clients fees based on the number of their customers who have enrolled with our clients for online bill payment services and, in some cases, online banking services. Therefore, customer enrollment affects our revenue and is important to us. Because our clients offer our services under their name, we must depend on those clients to get their customers to use our services. Although we conduct extensive marketing programs for our clients, our clients may decide not to participate in our programs or our financial institution clients may not effectively market our services to their customers. Any failure of our clients to effectively market our services could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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Consumer demand for low-cost or free online financial services may force us to reduce or eliminate the fees we charge for some services.

      Consumers of many of the online services we offer, including home-banking, bill payment and bill presentment, may demand that these services be offered for lower cost or even for free. Consumers may therefore reject our services in favor of companies that can offer more competitive prices. Thus, consumer demand and competition may place significant pressure on our pricing structure and revenues, and may have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

We rely on third parties for the success of our marketing efforts.

      We depend in part upon the assistance of marketing partners who include some or all of our services and related products as a part of their offerings to financial institutions. Failure by these marketing partners to continue to offer our services and related products could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We may not be able to expand to meet increased demand.

      We may not be able to expand or adapt our services and related products to meet the demands of our financial institution clients and their customers quickly or at a reasonable cost. The number of customers registered for our services has increased from 21,000 as of December 31, 1997 to 841,000 as of December 31, 2003. This resulting growth has placed, and is expected to continue to place, significant demands on our personnel, management and other resources. We will need to continue to expand and adapt our infrastructure, services and related products to accommodate additional financial institution clients and their customers, increased transaction volumes and changing customer requirements. This will require substantial financial, operational and management resources. If we are unable to scale our system and processes to support the variety and number of transactions and customers who ultimately use our services, our business may be materially adversely affected.

If we lose a material client, our business may be adversely impacted.

      Loss of any material financial institution contract could negatively impact our ability to increase our revenues and maintain profitability in the future. Additionally, the departure of a large financial institution could impact our ability to attract and retain other financial institution clients.

      One of our financial institution clients, California Federal Bank, accounted for 9%, 15% and 13% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001. During 2002, Citigroup acquired California Federal Bank or Cal Fed and converted the Cal Fed customers to the Citigroup banking and bill payment platform in the first quarter of 2003.

      Additionally, BB&T Corporation acquired our second largest customer, First Virginia Banks, Inc., in the third quarter of 2003. In the years ended December 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001, First Virginia accounted for 5% of our revenue. BB&T Corporation converted the First Virginia customers to the BB&T banking and bill payment platform in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Consolidation of the banking and financial services industry could negatively impact our business.

      The continuing consolidation of the banking and financial services industry could result in a smaller market for our services. Consolidation frequently results in a complete change in the electronic infrastructure of the combined entity. This could result in the termination of our services and related products if the acquiring institution has its own in-house system or outsources to competitive vendors. This would also result in the loss of revenue from actual or potential retail customers of the acquired financial institution.

We may not be able to compete with larger, more established businesses offering similar products or services.

      We may not be able to compete with current and potential competitors, many of whom have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger, more established customer bases and significantly greater

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financial, technical and marketing resources. Further, some of our competitors provide or have the ability to provide the same range of services we offer. They could market to our targeted regional and community financial institution client base. Other competitors, such as core banking processors, have broad distribution channels that bundle competing products directly to financial institutions. Also, competitors may compete directly with us by adopting a similar business model or through the acquisition of companies, such as resellers, who provide complimentary products or services.

      A significant number of companies offer portions of the services we provide and compete directly with us. For example, the web servers of some companies compete with our front-end Internet access capabilities. Other software providers have created units to provide on an outsourced basis a portion of services like ours. These companies may use bill payers who team with access providers. Also, certain services may be available to retail customers independent of financial institutions such as Intuit’s Quicken.com and Yahoo! Finance. Finally, there are some ATM and other networks that provide similar services in addition to connecting to financial institutions.

      Many of our competitors may be able to afford more extensive marketing campaigns and more aggressive pricing policies in order to attract financial institutions. Our failure to compete effectively in our markets would have a material adverse effect on our business.

System failures could hurt our business and we could be liable for some types of failures.

      Like other system operators, our operations are dependent on our ability to protect our system from interruption caused by damage from fire, earthquake, power loss, telecommunications failure, unauthorized entry or other events beyond our control. Although we have an agreement with an offsite disaster recovery facility, Savvis, in the event of major disasters, both locations could be equally impacted. We do not currently have sufficient backup facilities to provide full Internet services, if the Savvis facility is not functioning. We could also experience system interruptions due to the failure of our systems to function as intended or the failure of the systems we rely upon to deliver our services such as ATM networks, the Internet, or the systems of financial institutions, processors that integrate with our systems and other networks and systems of third parties. Loss of all or part of our systems for a period of time could have a material adverse effect on our business. We may be liable to our clients for breach of contract for interruptions in service. Due to the numerous variables surrounding system disruptions, we cannot predict the extent or amount of any potential liability.

Security breaches could disrupt our business.

      Like other system operators, our computer systems may be vulnerable to computer viruses, hackers, and other disruptive problems caused by unauthorized parties entering our system. We transmit confidential financial information in providing our services. Although we intend to continue to implement state-of-the-art security measures, computer attacks or disruptions may jeopardize the security of information stored in and transmitted through the computer systems of our financial institution clients and their customers using our services, which may result in significant losses or liability. This, or the perception and concern that our systems may be vulnerable to such attacks or disruptions, also may deter retail customers from using our services.

      Data networks are also vulnerable to attacks, unauthorized access and disruptions. For example, in a number of public networks, hackers have bypassed firewalls and misappropriated confidential information. It is possible, that despite existing safeguards, an employee could divert retail customer funds while these funds are in our control, exposing us to a risk of loss or litigation and possible liability. In dealing with numerous consumers, it is possible that some level of fraud or error will occur, which may result in erroneous external payments. Losses or liabilities that we incur as a result of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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The potential obsolescence of our technology or the offering of new, more efficient means of conducting Internet banking and bill payment could negatively impact our business.

      The industry for Internet banking services and bill payment services is relatively new and unproven and is subject to rapid change. Our success will depend substantially upon our ability to enhance our existing products and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost-effective basis, new products and features that meet the changing financial institution and retail customer requirements and incorporate technological advancements. If we are unable to develop new products and enhanced functionalities or technologies to adapt to these changes or if we cannot offset a decline in revenues of existing products by sales of new products, our business would suffer.

Our newly developed products may contain undetected or unresolved defects.

      Any new or enhanced products we introduce may contain undetected or unresolved software or hardware defects when they are first introduced or as new version are released. These defects could result in a loss of sales and additional costs as well as damage to our reputation and the loss of relationship with our financial institution clients and their customers.

We depend on our officers and skilled employees due to our complex business.

      If we fail to attract, assimilate or retain highly qualified managerial and technical personnel our business could be materially adversely affected. Our performance is substantially dependent on the performance of our executive officers and key employees who must be knowledgeable and experienced in both banking and technology. We are also dependent on our ability to retain and motivate high quality personnel, especially management and highly skilled technical teams. The loss of the services of any executive officers or key employees could have a material adverse effect on our business. Our future success also depends on the continuing ability to identify, hire, train and retain other highly qualified managerial and technical personnel. If our managerial and key personnel fail to effectively manage our business, our results of operations and reputation could be harmed.

Potential litigation and liability claims may have a material adverse effect on the operations, financial performance and cash flows.

      Our industry in general is susceptible to litigation, liability claims and risks. Any negative outcome in any significant legal proceeding or prolonged litigation may result in material losses to us. Any errors, defects or other performance problems in our products and services could result in financial or other damages to our financial institutions for which we may be liable. Moreover, we may be liable for transactions executed using Internet services based on our products and services even if the errors, defects or other problems are unrelated to our products and services.

Management and directors have the ability to control our corporate affairs.

      As of February 28, 2004, management and directors beneficially owned approximately 15% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, they may have the ability to effectively control us and direct our affairs and business, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Such concentration of ownership may also have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control, and make some transactions more difficult or impossible without the support of such stockholders, including proxy contests, mergers, tender offers, open-market purchase programs or other purchases of common stock that could give our stockholders the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price for shares of common stock.

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Our stock price is volatile.

      The market price of our common stock has been subject to significant fluctuations and may continue to be volatile in response to:

  •  actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;
 
  •  announcements of technological innovations;
 
  •  new products or services offered by us or our competitors;
 
  •  changes in financial estimates or ratings by securities analysts;
 
  •  conditions or trends in the Internet and online commerce industries;
 
  •  changes in the economic performance and/or market valuations of other Internet, online service industries;
 
  •  announcements by us of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;
 
  •  additions or departures of key personnel;
 
  •  future equity or debt offerings or acquisitions or our announcements of these transactions; and
 
  •  other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.

      The stock market in general and the Nasdaq National Market have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations and volatility that has particularly affected the market prices of many technology, emerging growth and developmental stage companies. Such fluctuations and volatility have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of such companies. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against a company. Litigation, if instituted, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

Government regulation could interfere with our business.

      The financial services industry is subject to extensive and complex federal and state regulation. Financial institutions such as commercial banks, savings and loans associations, savings banks, and credit unions operate under high levels of governmental supervision. Our customers must ensure that our services and related products work within the extensive and evolving regulatory requirements applicable to them.

      Neither federal depository institution regulators nor other federal regulators of financial services require us to obtain any licenses. We are subject to examination by federal depository institution regulators under the Bank Service Company Act and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 1999 among other regulations. Although we believe we are not subject to direct supervision by federal and state banking agencies relating to other regulations, we have from time to time agreed to examinations of our business and operations by these agencies. These regulators have broad supervisory authority to remedy any shortcomings identified in any such examination.

      Federal, state or foreign authorities could also adopt laws, rules or regulations relating to the financial services industry that affect our business, such as requiring us or our customers to comply with data, record keeping and processing and other requirements. It is possible that laws and regulations may be enacted or modified with respect to the Internet, covering issues such as end user privacy, pricing, content, characteristics, taxation and quality of services and products. If enacted or deemed applicable to us, these laws, rules or regulations could be imposed on our activities or our business, thereby rendering our business or operations more costly, burdensome, less efficient or impossible and requiring us to modify our current or future products or services.

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If we cannot achieve and maintain a satisfactory rating from the federal depository institution regulators, we may lose existing clients and have difficulty attracting new clients.

      We are subject to examination by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, FFIEC, under the Bank Service Company Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, and various other federal regulations. In our most recent examination report, dated as of March 2002, these regulators noted several opportunities for improvement in our documentation and operations, and we received a less satisfactory rating than we had in our previous examination. This examination report has been distributed, or is available to our client financial institutions through their regulatory agencies. This less satisfactory rating increases the obligation of our clients to monitor our capabilities and performance as a part of their own compliance process.

      We have taken the appropriate steps to mitigate the regulators’ concerns, and based on these efforts they do not intend to take any further actions prior to our next examination, which we expect to occur in April 2004. If we do not improve our rating, our financial institution clients and prospects may lose confidence in us and seek alternate providers. This would affect our revenue and revenue growth and could lower our profit margins.

We have a substantial number of shares of common stock that may be sold, which could affect the trading prices of our common stock.

      We have a substantial number of shares of common stock that may be issued upon exercise of stock options and warrants. We cannot predict the effect, if any, that future sales of shares of common stock or the availability of shares of common stock for future sale will have on the market price of our common stock. Sales of substantial amounts of common stock (including shares issued upon the exercise of stock options or warrants), or the perception that such sales could occur, may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock.

Our stockholder rights plan contains provisions that could discourage a takeover.

      In January 2002, we announced that our Board of Directors has adopted a stockholder rights plan. This plan along with provisions contained in our Certificate of Incorporation may discourage or prevent a change of control through the issuance of additional equity securities that can substantially dilute the interests of a third party seeking to gain control over our company in the absence of the approval of our Board of Directors.

Terrorism and the possibility of further acts of violence may have a material adverse effect on our operations.

      War, the threat of war, terrorist attacks, such as the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, the response by the United States and further acts of violence or war may affect the market on which our common stock will trade, the markets in which we operate, and our operations and profitability. Further terrorist attacks against the United States may occur. The potential near-term and long-term effect of these attacks on our business, the market for our common stock and the economy is uncertain. The consequences of any terrorist attacks, or any armed conflicts that may result, are unpredictable, and we may not be able to foresee events that could have an adverse material effect on our business or the trading price of our common stock.

Item 2.     Properties

      We are headquartered in McLean, Virginia where we lease approximately 54,000 square feet of office space. The lease expires July 31, 2004. We believe that all of our facilities are in good condition and are suitable and adequate to meet our operations. Additionally, we believe that suitable additional or alternative space will be available in the future on commercially reasonable terms as needed.

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Item 3.     Legal Proceedings

      From time to time we may be involved in litigation arising in the normal course of our business. We are not a party to any litigation, individually or in the aggregate, that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

Item 4.     Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

      No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders, through the solicitation of proxies or otherwise, during the fourth quarter of 2003.

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PART II

 
Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

      Our common stock began trading on the Nasdaq National Market on June 4, 1999 under the symbol “ORCC”. The following table sets forth the range of high and low closing sales prices of our common stock for the periods indicated, as reported by Nasdaq:

                                 
2003 2002


Fiscal Quarter Ended High Low High Low





First Quarter
  $ 3.450     $ 2.500     $ 3.300     $ 2.600  
Second Quarter
    6.370       2.620       3.850       2.800  
Third Quarter
    7.400       5.240       3.140       2.510  
Fourth Quarter
    7.980       6.030       4.640       2.700  

      The market price of our common stock is highly volatile and fluctuates in response to a wide variety of factors. See “Business — Risk Factors — Our Stock Price is Volatile.”

      On December 31, 2003, we had approximately 171 holders of record of common stock. This does not reflect persons or entities that hold their stock in nominee or “street” name through various brokerage firms.

      We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We expect to invest any future earnings to finance growth, and therefore do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. Our board of directors will determine if we pay any future dividends.

      On June 9, 2003, we increased our stockholders’ equity by $4.4 million through a private placement of 1,336,000 newly issued common shares to a group of institutional investors. This transaction was priced at a discount to the Online Resources volume weighted average closing share price for the 10 trading days prior to the seventh trading day before closing. In separate transactions, these proceeds were used to repurchased $3.9 million of its Convertible Notes at par. The remaining $8.1 million in Convertible Notes were converted into 2,001,314 shares of common stock in October and November of 2003.

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Item 6. Selected Financial Data

      The following balance sheet data and statements of operations were derived from our financial statements. You should read the following selected financial information in conjunction with our financial statements and related notes thereto and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this report.

                                             
Year Ended December 31

2003 2002 2001 2000 1999





Statement of Operations Data:
                                       
Revenues:
    &