<p>OVERLAND PARK, Kansas – U.S. Central's net income totaled $18.9 million for first quarter 2002, up from $10.6 million during the same period last year. "While liquidity isn't building at the rate it was a year ago, it isn't lessening either," said U.S. Central President/CEO Dan Kampen. U.S. Central's primary capital (reserves, undivided earnings and paid-in capital) totaled $740.3 million as of March 31, 2002, compared with $696.7 at the end of March 31, 2001. Its regulatory capital ratio was 5.9%. One first quarter highlight for the corporates' corporate was an asset high of $37.7 billion hit on March 1. U.S. Central ended the quarter at $35.8 billion in assets and $30.8 billion in members' share and certificate accounts. In other results, fee income for the quarter was $3.7 million, up from $3.3 million last year; operating expenses were $10.9 million, compared with $10.6 million in 2001; travel expenses increased by $300,000 over last year; salaries and benefits increased by $200,000; number of full-time employees increased from 229 to 231; APEX-ACH transactions totaled 8.1 million; U.S. Central recorded net gains on financial instruments of $1.8 million, compared with net losses of $4.1 million last year; and income from e-commerce services jumped by $300,000. U.S. Central's balance sheet is highly liquid. As of March 31, 2002 it held $8.0 billion in investments with overnight maturities and $22.3 billion in marketable securities. In a letter to its members included in the first quarter report, Kampen indicated that there are some technology changes on the way, specifically with its online account access system, Corporate Credit Union Network which is driven by EDS. "We continued to work with the core account processing corporate focus group to evaluate the future direction of CCUN. The group selected final vendors, and we are in various phases of due diligence with them. We expect to make a system recommendation later this summer for this large-scale, complex technology initiative." "A core account processing group, made up of staff from seven corporates and U.S. Central, has been working together for approximately one year to identify alternatives to the Corporate Network's current processing system – CCUN. Right now, the group is in various phases of due diligence with vendor finalists and expects to have a system recommendation by the end of June," said Margaret Blankers, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications for U.S. Central. U.S. Central said it is also close to completing a new feature to post standard NACHA-formatted files to CCUN, which will automate corporates' process for posting credit union activity, currently done manually. Another highlight for the quarter was a jumbo loan program (mortgages over $300,700), launched by its subsidiary Network Liquidity Acceptance Company, LLC. [email protected]</p>