Amazon.com is now accepting electronic check payments - or, as Amazon calls it, "Pay Directly From Your Bank Account."

CheckFree has announced results of a recent survey concluding that 56 percent of US online households are paying at least one bill online, up from 52 percent last year. Currently, 87 percent of users who pay their bills from a single "consolidated" website, such as a bank, brokerage, credit union or Internet portal, say they receive the service for free.

Corillian has announced the integration of a strong authentication solution into its online banking applications in direct response to the recent Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's (FFIEC) guidance.  The solution will enable Corillian customers to provide a strong, multi-layer authentication solution enterprise-wide by year-end 2006. Corillian calls its patent-pending security solution "Intelligent Authentication".

Gibraltar-based PayNowSMS has announced a new alternative payment processing service targeting merchants in the online entertainment and gaming sectors.  The service uses mobile phone text message to accomplish payment.  The PayNowSMS platform is being provided by Upaid.

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