ECHO announces first quarter revenue

Electronic Clearing House, Inc. headquartered in Agoura Hills (NASDAQ:ECHO) reported revenue of $7.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2002, an increase of 13.5 percent as compared to $6.9 million in the prior year quarter.

The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $93,000 or $0.02 per diluted share, as compared to net earnings of $22,000 or $0.00 per share for the same period last year.

The loss reflected a high level of product development and program management expense in support of the company’s VISA POS check service program during the quarter, as well as more than $300,000 in litigation expense related to a lawsuit (Premier Lifestyle International Corporation v. Electronic Clearing House, Inc.).

"During the quarter, ECHO continued to make excellent progress in implementing our relationship with VISA to complete development and testing of their POS check service. Pilot programs with several member banks are moving forward as planned.

"We continue to demonstrate the security and scalability of our third-party check verification and ACH backbone. And we expect the program will be ready for broader roll out early in the third calendar quarter of 2002," said Joel M. Barry, chairman and CEO of ECHO.