Integrion CEO Departing; Duo to Lead Network

Integrion Financial Network plans to announce today that its chief executive officer, William M. Fenimore Jr., will be leaving at the end of the year.

The plan calls for Christopher F. Schellhorn to remain chief operating officer of the sometimes embattled home banking consortium and for Maurice D. St. Jean, formerly of Royal Bank of Canada, to come in as managing director.

The two will constitute an executive management office reporting to the Integrion board of managers.

Mr. Fenimore, 55, joined the Philadelphia-based venture at its formation three years ago and navigated through alternating periods of controversy and stability. He said he had told the board early this year of his intention to move on.

"My role was to get the company started and operating and the foundation established," he said. "Now it's time to hand over to another team."

Mr. Schellhorn, 48, joined Integrion two years ago, when it acquired Visa Interactive, of which he was president and chief operating officer. He became Integrion's chief operating officer in June.

Mr. St. Jean, 48, was vice president of delivery channel strategies and strategic alliances at Royal Bank of Canada. He left the Toronto bank in June, he said, "prior to having any discussions with Integrion." He represented Royal Bank on the Integrion board before the bank opted out of membership in April.

Integrion had 17 original member institutions along with International Business Machines Corp. and Visa U.S.A. The group did not meet initial timetables for deploying an interactive banking infrastructure; outside observers blamed the large number of owners and the constituents' differing strategic goals.

In a restructuring in April, Integrion pared back the number of primary owners to four Bank of America Corp., Bank One Corp., Washington Mutual Inc., and Visa.

There are currently five board members representatives of those four owners plus Mr. Fenimore. After he leaves the board, Mr. Schellhorn and Mr. St. Jean will join it.

"The board's idea was to use two seasoned executives," Mr. Fenimore said. "We brought Maurice (St. Jean ) on board to look at the strategic direction of the company, at what the market and our customer base required in respect of products and applications on the IFS (Interactive Financial Services) platform. Chris (Schellhorn) brings the capabilities and strengths around how these operate."

Said Mr. Schellhorn, who will take responsibility for all Integrion operations implementations, bank relationship management, and vendor relationships: "As Maurice and I proceed, we'll look at the organization and identify where the various pieces of the puzzle fit together."

Six banks B of A, Bank One, Washington Mutual, Michigan National Corp., ABN Amro, and PNC Bank Corp. -- are operating on Integrion's IFS platform. Last week Integrion passed the million-subscriber mark.

"A company that is growing by 85,000 to 100,000 subscribers a month should not be underestimated," said Mr. Fenimore. "We expect to have 1.4 million subscribers by the end of the year." He also said Integrion is issuing new releases of IFS and adding capabilities.

Bank One is furthest along with Internet banking, having offered bill payment and presentment since April.

PNC went live with bill payment using its ally Checkfree Corp. and will roll out bill presentment within a month, said Emily Mendell, director of strategic marketing and communications at Integrion.

Small-business banking will be added to the IFS platform by the end of the year, she said.

"In Phase 2 of Integrion we need to focus on operational excellence," Mr. St. Jean said. "We'll listen to our customers and leverage our technological assets and customer base to enable our bank customers to build."

Conversations continue between Integrion and Transpoint, the bill payment and presentment venture owned by Microsoft Corp., First Data Corp., and Citigroup Inc. "But contrary to what Transpoint may say, Checkfree is the only company offering a bill presentment solution," Mr. Fenimore said.

Integrion has put out a request for proposals to build a bill-presentment aggregation capability for multiple bill publishers. The determination of the winning vendor should be made in the fall, Mr. Fenimore said.

"The role for Integrion is to focus on the consumer rather than the biller, so consumers can access their bills from a single point of contact," he said.

As for his own plans, Mr. Fenimore said he is "looking forward to getting his feet back on the ground and to do things with his family."

"Integrion has been a lot of fun," he said, "but a lot of work, and draining."

In move related to the changes at the top, David S. Fortney, currently director of product development, will become chief development officer, responsible for all technology and product development. He will report to Mr. St. Jean.

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