CSI's formula for success is simple: we strive to fulfill the ever expanding needs of our customers.
Technology is just part of the CSI package. We educate by providing bankers with exposure to new products and services and advice on how they can apply them. Training sessions, product seminars and our annual customer conference all help customer banks become aware of the available technologies and how these technologies can improve operations and add to bank income.
Needs fulfillment-Providing the technologies that customer banks need to better serve customers-is a CSI strength. At Customer Conference '97, CSI introduced a product from Central Park Capital (CPC) that provides commercial loan customers access to direct, long-term, fixed-rate commercial real estate loans. CSI's unique relationship with CPC provides the opportunity for banks to increase fee income while reducing interest rate and real estate risk in the bank's loan portfolio. Loan Connection, also announced last year, allows consumers to apply for a loan from home, office or anywhere equipped with a touch-tone phone. Applications can also be submitted over the Internet. Loan Connection decreases origination costs, standardizes credit decisions and increases a bank's loan volume as well.CSI products are helping to transition community banks from the paper intensive institutions of the past to the electronic efficiency today's world demands. A good example is EZVIEW, CSI's imaging solution that replaces the traditional paper or microfiche method of report distribution, storage and retrieval with all electronic delivery of information with no waste of time or resources.
These are just some of the products CSI is offering to meet the market's growing appetite for speed and convenience. In our role as educator, we create awareness of the technologies that can enhance a bank's services and we deliver competitive products that keep our customer banks technologically up to date. We are growing our offerings. Banks are growing their products and services. CSI revenues are growing in the process.
Consumers' overwhelming acceptance of and dependence on Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) is fueling the demand for more ATM outlets. Non-existent three decades ago, ATMs have quickly become a standard that consumers expect to find on any bank's menu of services. In fiscal 1998, as banks expanded their off-site banking premises to keep up with this demand, our ATM revenues grew by 26%. We added about three ATMs a week, increasing our network to 580 ATMs for nearly 200 customer banks.
VISA Check is growing as an alternative to the personal check. The card's popularity was reflected in an astounding 388% growth in our VISA Check revenues last year. Although considerable growth came from new banks that signed CSI contracts in fiscal 1998, the majority resulted from existing customers expanding to meet the explosion in consumer demand.
Revenues from CenterVoice, CSI's automated voice response tool that allows customers to transact banking over the telephone, climbed nearly 30% last year: the combined result of new conversions and growth in customer volume. One hundred twenty-six of our customer banks have contracted for this service, 118 have been converted, and more banks are signing up on a regular basis. Nearly 3.5 million Centervoice calls were logged during the last fiscal year. Premier Print, CSI's line of laser print products that puts design in the banker's court and high quality statements and notices in consumers' hands, also posted impressive gains in fiscal 1998.
Nowhere was CSI's talent for needs fulfillment more evident than in the development of CSINET. During a session at the February 1997 CEO Conference, we outlined the Internet security issues, including exposure from dial-up modems, and described how CSI's firewall-best described as a 24-hour electronic security force-protects us against the hackers that live and thrive on the Internet. "Can CSI do that for us?" bankers asked. We responded quickly. By mid-summer we had developed CSINET, a product that allows customer banks to take advantage of secure Internet connectivity behind CSI's firewall. Another plus: CSINET is creatively priced. Banks connect as many PCs as they like and pay only for actual usage. With CSI's telecommunications network already in place, CSINET provides additional utility for past investments.
Some of our long-term customers experienced a price adjustment when prices for several core processing applications were adjusted to bring older pricing to current levels. This was the first such adjustment in 16 years. CSI's pricing and delivery strategies continue to provide customer banks with an attractive alternative to the large investments associated with in-house processing systems. Leveraging, spreading the cost of technologies over CSI's broad customer base, combined with our practice of leveraging collective volume with third party vendors affords CSI customers more pricing benefits.
How does leveraging build revenue? The collective volume of customers using technology affords banks a better price. A better price allows more banks to use more products and services (perhaps even ones they could not otherwise afford).
CSI is delivering enhanced technology services, educating bankers on product availability, and working with them to integrate solutions that best fit their needs and bottom line. We're taking the right products to the right customers at the right time. The result is win-win for everyone-increased efficiencies for banks, convenience for consumers, and revenue growth for CSI.