LOS ANGELES, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ Cash Technologies(TM), whose CoinBank(R) subsidiary is a leader in self-service coin deposit machines for banks, has announced a major advancement in retail banking. After years of design and research, Cash Technologies(TM) has released its new ATM-X(TM), a state-of-the- art machine that provides a full range of kiosk services not previously offered by ATM machines, including electronic bill payment, instant activation phone cards, event ticketing and other online services. Cincinnati-based Star Bank and Cash Technologies(TM) have entered into an agreement to beta test ATM-X(TM) in the first quarter of 1998. The Company expects to announce other institutional partnerships in the near future.

Until now, ATMs have had limitations that prevented them from offering Point of Sale (POS) transactions or services that require information to be sent to multiple destinations, such as in electronic bill payment transactions where both the ATM (or credit card) issuer and the biller must be sent payment information.

Cash Technologies(TM) claims to have overcome these limitations by developing a new protocol and a proprietary host platform that drives the ATM- X(TM), providing support for ATM, POS and EDI transactions from a single terminal.

The patent-pending network architecture also resolves the settlement differences that have historically prevented ATM and POS transactions from being performed on the same machine.

Another novel feature of the ATM-X(TM) system is its ability to support "verified" currency deposits, in which a customer can deposit paper money directly to their account for immediate credit through the machine's bill acceptor. This can eliminate the usual "subject-to-count" envelope deposits where the customer's available balance is not updated for 2 or 3 days until the envelope is counted. It also eliminates the losses sometimes suffered by financial institutions that receive foreign deposits (deposits to an ATM not owned by the customer's bank).

Perhaps best of all, like the CoinBank(R) coin deposit machines, the Company intends to install ATM-X(TM) at no cost to qualified bank and retail customers, sharing with them the fee income that the machine's many services can generate.

According to Cash Technologies(TM) CEO Bruce Korman, "Cash Technologies(TM) has benefited from its unique vertical integration as a software/hardware developer and network operator. The ATM-X(TM) concept is a natural extension of the networking technology developed for the multi-faceted CoinBank(R) coin counting machines the company has been installing at banks and retailers for years."

ATM-X(TM) is to be unveiled at the Bank Administration Institute's (BAI) Retail Delivery '97 in New Orleans, December 1-5. A press conference will be held Wednesday, December 3 at 1:00 p.m.

Cash Technologies, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles. In less than five years, the company has enjoyed rapid growth by applying technology-based solutions to cash processing services including sorting, counting and packaging of coin and currency, as well as financial data processing. The company services over fifty clients in industries ranging from banking to transportation to supermarkets to payphone and vending services.