Symbius Financial Signs Agreement Leading
U.S. Prepaid Card Provider

TriCentury Bank to Market Symbius’ Financial Wellness Programs to its Customers

SCOTTSDALE, AZ November 2, 2010 – Symbius Financial, the first company to deliver a simple, transparent and low-cost way for employers to manage and greatly improve the financial wellness among their workforce, today announced a deal with TriCentury Bank. With the partnership, TriCentury plans to offer Symbius’ programs to its customer base. Symbius provides a comprehensive suite of employee benefit programs that improve the financial well-being of employees. The company’s solutions help employers: (1) improve the productivity of their employees and (2) greatly reduce the healthcare-related costs from employee financial stress. TriCentury markets an online bank account and card program called ‘Vive’ to unbanked/underbanked consumers across the U.S.

“By selecting Symbius Financial as our partner, we can better position our ‘Vive’ account from other online accounts and prepaid card solutions in the market,” said Pam Woodson, TriCentury’s President. “We have just completed a lengthy due diligence of Symbius and its programs and are excited to market their products.”

One of Symbius’ most innovative financial wellness offerings is their PayEarly Program (patent-pending). The PayEarly Program enables employees to take a draw of their upcoming paycheck in advance. By providing the employee with a flexible way to gain access to their earned wages, Symbius’ program offers employees a better way to get through a financial emergency by providing them with liquidity.  

Employee financial stress is a growing problem for employers and their employees.

·         30% of U.S. employees are seriously financially distressed. On average, up to 80% of financially distressed employees spend time at work dealing with their personal financial issues, wasting anywhere from 12-20 work hours per month (Dr. E. Thomas Garman, President, Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation)

·         Recent studies estimate that an employer's incremental health care cost of a financially distressed employee is $300 per year (MetLife, Study of Employee Benefits Trends, 1/2009)

·         Employees regard financial stress as their primary concern, five times greater than personal health (National Institute of Personal Finance)

With the downturn of the economy, employee stress from financial emergencies is on the rise across the U.S. and Symbius PayEarly Program directly addresses this issue for employers and their employees. Recently, the Society for Human Resource Management reported that, in the previous 12 months, survey respondents had seen:

·         26% increase in employees having their wages garnished by collection agencies

·         39% increase in requests for 401(k) plan loans; and

·         20% increase in requests for pay advances

Symbius’ program is provided at no cost and with no risk to employers and works seamlessly with existing payroll systems and processes utilized by employers, payroll companies and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs). Symbius financial wellness programs benefit employers by improving employee productivity, reducing health care related costs and displacing the need for employers to feel compelled to grant advances to their own employees.

With the Symbius program there are never any late fees, extensions, or rollovers that can harm the employee. In addition, employers can control how often employees can access the program, so employees are protected from over-use.

The Symbius program displaces the need for an employee to utilize 401k loans, predatory payday lenders and high-fee overdraft protection to meet their liquidity issue. In addition, employees can try to solve a financial emergency with other methods that end up costing the company in time and money. These include: adjustments to their IRS deductions, changes to their employee benefit withholding and 401k withholdings, and dropping of insurance coverage. But with the Symbius PayEarly Program, employees can solve their financial emergency without impacting the employer and without causing harm to their own long-term financial future. The program is especially in demand by ‘unbanked’ and ‘underbanked’ employees; a large and growing segment among the U.S. population.

About Symbius Financial
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Symbius Financial is the first company to deliver a simple, transparent and low-cost way for employers to manage and reduce financial stress among their employees. With the Symbius’ program, employers can significantly improve employee productivity and reduce their health care costs by improving the financial wellness of their employee base. The Symbius program includes: (1) a robust financial health assessment platform, (2) on-demand financial education with brief, media-rich videos covering more than 50 financial topics, (3) a do-it-yourself online debt payoff tool that empower employees to pay off debt as quickly as possible, (4) a PayEarly Program that advances funds to employees for emergency situations (up to six times per year), (5) identity theft protection and (6) access to optional features such as an ongoing ‘money coach’ program. For the latest facts and trends about the employee financial stress crisis, please visit: www.symbiusfinancial.com/wellness_facts.aspx. For more information about Symbius, please visit www.SymbiusFinancial.com.

About TriCentury Bank:
TriCentury Bank is a Kansas state chartered bank founded April 4, 1894 in Simpson Kansas.  The bank’s strategic focus is bringing affordable banking services to the unbanked/underbanked by employing the latest in banking technology.   The bank serves customers throughout the United States.  TriCentury Bank’s home office is in Simpson Kansas and the bank operates its Customer Service Center in Prairie Village, Kansas.  For more information about TriCentury Bank please visit: www.tricentury.com.

Contact:
Duke Fonner duke@symbiusfinancial.com/480-889-8941