Meriwest Credit Union Announced Winner of
Reflection Point Research LLC’s First Annual
Member Experience Excellence Award

KENT, Wash., Sept. 17, 2002 — Meriwest Credit Union of San Jose, California recently was announced winner of the first annual Member Experience Excellence Award in a national study conducted by Reflection Point Research LLC, based in Kent, Washington and the leading provider of market research and usability solutions for credit unions.

The Member Experience Excellence Award is the first-ever measure of a credit union’s Web site performance as stated by its own site users and membership. Meriwest scored the highest on several of the key component areas:  performance, visual appeal, brand impact and retention.  The credit union ended the study with the highest overall score of all credit unions involved in the study.

The Member Experience Meter, on which the award is based, is the first and only measurement product available today which incorporates actual financial institution member Web-site feedback and relates it to other key benchmarks from the best practice companies on the Internet today.

"Based on feedback from our members, we developed many features for our Web site designed to deliver a unique and valuable member experience," said Deborah Holstein, vice president of marketing for Meriwest. "We are honored and pleased to be recognized for our efforts in providing Meriwest members with an online experience with easy access to the tools they need to achieve their financial goals."

Glenn Christensen, president/CEO of Reflection Point Inc., said of Meriwest’s ranking, “We were immediately impressed with the overall quality of Meriwest’s Web site and their members clearly agreed. The site has an abundance of valuable features, excellent visual appeal and valuable content, which has generated strong brand appeal and membership retention.”

Meriwest Credit Union, an established and proactive full-service financial institution, is dedicated to making life easier for businesses and families in the San Francisco Bay Area and Tucson, Arizona through personal, convenient and innovative financial services. More information can be found at www.meriwest.com

Reflection Point Research LLC of Kent, Washington brings together the strengths of Glenn Christensen of Reflection Point Inc., long-time respected strategist and marketing consultant to credit unions and the financial industry, and John Burshek of The Arthur Group, Inc., market research expert on online customer experience, working with Fortune 500 companies.   Reflection Point Research provides a broad array of offline and online market research and web usability analysis to the financial services industry.  This research is central to how its parent company Reflection Point, Inc. assists banks and credit unions improve their Web presence through a menu of e-business services including planning, design, development, marketing, content development and maintenance.  Reflection Point’s XML-based Web content management solutions assist financial institutions leverage their content across multiple channels and devices.  Company information is available by visiting www.reflectionpoint.com.

CONTACTS:

Glenn Christensen, Reflection Point Research, LLC

Direct: 1.253.638.9486

Email: glenn@reflectionpoint.com

John Burshek, Reflection Point Research, LLC

Direct:1.425.468.9292
Email: jburshek@reflectionpoint.com

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