Shanghai SmartPay Jieyin, in partnership with China Unicom, China Unionpay and Huishang Bank, has launched its mobile wallet service for paying utility bills in Anhui Province. This service allows users to pay bills any time, any where, without having to go to banks or toll stations. SmartPay says" 'all they have to do is to send a SMS and bills are paid, saving time and cost.'   » Continue Reading

Yodlee and Postilion have announced a 'partnership to integrate Yodlee PersonalFinance and Yodlee DirectPay into Postilion's Retail and Business Internet Banking solutions to enable Postilion's' financial institution customers to deliver stronger online banking solutions and develop new revenue-generating opportunities via card-based online bill payment.'   » Continue Reading

Phoenix Payments has announced the results of its 2007 Consumer Payments Preferences and Usage Study: Debit Card Opportunities and Challenges. The study findings include a detailed report on debit card issues, covering consumer preferences, attitudes, and usage of debit cards as well as debit’s relationship to other payment methods.   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has published a new report titled 'Usage Trends in Online and Mobile Banking: Upping the Ante' finding that reviews consumer adoption trends for online and mobile banking services over the next two years.   » Continue Reading

Fiserv and SunTrust have announced 'they will donate one tree for every SunTrust customer who signs up for electronic bill (e-bill) activation or pays at least three bills online or via a mobile phone between April 14 and June 30, 2008. With assistance from the Arbor Day Foundation, Fiserv and SunTrust have set a goal of planting more than 10,000 trees as part of the campaign.'   » Continue Reading

Marianne Crowe, Vice President, Emerging Payments Research Group, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, gave a presentation last week titled "Emerging Payments - The Changing Landscape" to the Maine Association of Community Banks and to the New Hampshire Community Bankers Association. Crowe's presentation discusses the growth in debit card payments, the emergence (and potential threats to banks) of decoupled debit cards, prepaid cards for the unbanked, and the use of the Internet for bill payment, ecommerce purchases, and person-to-person or account-to-account money transfers. She also discusses contactless payments and mobile banking.

Wells Fargo has announced it is 'offering consumers a $250 incentive for the purchase of new residential photovoltaic solar energy systems, hosting a sweepstake to encourage customers to bank online, and expanding its Wells Fargo Rewards program to include a line of eco-friendly options.'   » Continue Reading

NACHA has announced that its "Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS), which speeds up the ability of consumers to receive electronic bills (eBills) at the online provider of their choice, recently began operation. The first transaction was the presentment and payment of a Verizon bill. Verizon is one of the founding participants of EBIDS."   » Continue Reading

The PayItGreen Alliance says it is "asking consumers to turn off paper bills and statements and make payments electronically. The Alliance, comprised of leaders in the financial and consumer billing industries, was formed in 2007 to educate consumers about the positive environmental impact of choosing electronic bills, statements and payments over paper alternatives. The Alliance has named April as PayItGreen Month to launch this initiative."   » Continue Reading

Billeo and Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC), an alternative credit bureau that collects, reports and scores rental and bill payment data, have announced that they are working together to enable consumers to build credit by doing what they do each month – pay their recurring bills on time.   » Continue Reading

The International Journal of Central Banking's March issue includes the article "Transaction Pricing and the Adoption of Electronic Payments: A Cross-Country Comparison" by Wilko Bolt, David Humphrey and Roland Uittenbogaard. From the abstract: "After safety, the efficiency of a nation's payment system is a primary concern of central banks. Since electronic payments are typically cheaper than paper-based or cash payments, pricing these transactions should speed up the shift to electronics. But by how much? Norway explicitly priced point-of-sale and bill-payment transactions and rapidly shifted to electronic payments, while the Netherlands experienced a similar shift without pricing. Controlling for terminal availability and differences between countries, direct pricing accelerated the shift to electronics by about 20 percent. The quid pro quo was the elimination of bank-float revenues."

Airtel has announced the launch of range of Mobile Commerce solutions including Mobile Money Transfer (MMT), Postpaid Bill Payment and Prepaid Recharge on the mobile phone. Airtel is partnering with ICICI bank, HDFC bank, SBI, Corporation bank and VISA to enable these payments using a solution that has been developed by mChek.   » Continue Reading

Yodlee has announced that its proprietary DirectPay card payment network now supports over 300 national and regional billers, enabling new revenue generating credit and debit card based electronic bill payments. Yodless says that "the 300 DirectPay billers represent over 40 percent of major U.S. billers by volume and give most consumers the opportunity to pay nearly half of their bills by card each month."   » Continue Reading

RentPayment has announced the implementation of Cardinal MAX, the mobile platform from CardinalCommerce Corporation, to allow residents to make payments via their mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

mChek, an Indian company focused on mobile security and payments services, has announced that its mChek on Airtel postpaid bill payment service has won the GSMA Global Mobile Award 2008 for Best Billing and Customer Care Solution with Airtel at the 13 th Annual GSM Association Global Mobile Awards 2008 at Barcelona.   » Continue Reading

99Bill Corporation, a third-party electronic payment services provider in China, has launched one-stop cross-bank services for credit card bill payment targeting 75 millions credit card holders in China.   » Continue Reading

Online Resources Corp. has released results of a recent survey of U.S. households and billers regarding the effect of the current mortgage crisis on bill payment and collection patterns. According to ORCC, the survey shows that fallout from the mortgage sector is spilling over into the broader economy, impacting companies across industries and their ability to collect payments.   » Continue Reading

mChek has announced that "ICICI Prudential Life Insurance policyholders can now pay their premiums through their mobile phones, anytime and from anywhere. ICICI Prudential is the first life insurance company in the country to launch this unique service facility for its policyholders."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank and CheckFree have announced they are collaborating "to encourage consumers to save time, reduce stress and make children smile this holiday season by paying bills online. For every five bills that a customer pays via U.S. Bank Internet Banking now through Dec. 31, 2007, U.S. Bank and CheckFree will donate $10 to Toys for Tots."   » Continue Reading

AT&T has announced "the launch of a comprehensive, easy-to-use mobile banking platform that will enable consumers to view account balances and history, transfer funds and pay bills from their AT&T mobile handsets."   » Continue Reading

A new SunTrust Bank and CheckFree study "reveals a clear link between electronic billing and payment habits and higher account balances, customer loyalty and profitability."   » Continue Reading

RBS Lynk has announced it is now offering its merchants a way to reach online banking users who want to pay cash at eCommerce checkouts by offering MODASolutions eBillme payment option. eBillme provides consumers with "the ability to safely and securely pay cash using their online banking bill pay service."   » Continue Reading

Western Union and Yodlee have announced a program that the two companies says is "the first ever capable of linking financial institutions' online bill-payment services directly to Western Union's thousands of billers. These payment capabilities are featured in Yodlee's new BillPay PayItAll solution."   » Continue Reading

APACS is advising consumers in the UK "to be mindful of the postal strikes over the next week as important post could be delayed that could have a knock on affect on finances."   » Continue Reading

Billeo has announced a strategic relationship with the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the largest association for community banks in the U.S.   » Continue Reading

NACHA has announced the formation of a "green coalition" to educate consumers about the positive environmental impacts of choosing electronic bills, statements, and payments over paper. The leadership partners include Bank of America, CheckFree, Citibank, Citizens Bank, EPN, the Federal Reserve Banks, Fiserv, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank.   » Continue Reading

Yodlee has announced the general availability of a new, end-to-end online payment solution called Yodlee BillPay PayItAll™ - calling it "a complete, next generation online bill pay offering that will enable financial institutions to dramatically lower bill pay solution, processing and related expenses, generate new revenue and significantly improve the customer experience."   » Continue Reading

Forrester's Alyson Clarke takes a look at Australia's BPAY bill payment service - saying it is "believed to have been a catalyst for all other Internet banking transactions. The service already dominates the electronic bill payment market. With recent news that BPAY's only real competitor, Australia Post's Postbillpay, will discontinue its Internet service, the firm will soon strongly dominate intermediated Internet bill payments. The secret behind BPAY's success? Cooperation."

In the UK, Telrock Communications Ltd, a mobile applications technology company focused on the financial services, utility and public-sector markets, has announced an exclusive agreement with PayPoint that will enable consumers to pay bills and top up their mobile phones via text message using its textDebit service.   » Continue Reading

The PULSE ATM/debit network has announced it is offering "utility companies, lenders and certain other billers a new payment option that enables consumers to automatically pay recurring bills using a debit card without entering their personal identification number (PIN)."   » Continue Reading

Fiserv and CheckFree have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Fiserv will acquire CheckFree in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4.4 billion.   » Continue Reading

Online Resources Corporation has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Internet Transaction Solutions, a biller service provider (BSP) to receivables management companies and utilities.   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research has published a new report titled "2007 Online Banking and Bill Payment: Trends, Forecasts, and Strategies for Reinvigorating Growth and Adoption" that suggests that "consumers can financially do well by doing good, improving financial control while eliminating the paper bills, statements and checks that harm the environment through forest destruction, wastewater, fuel consumption, air pollution and landfill waste."   » Continue Reading

Billeo has announced "a series of solutions which give consumers unprecedented choice and control in online bill payment. Billeo lets you pay virtually any bill online, using any payment method desired, including credit cards and debit cards. If paying by credit card, the average Billeo user can reap over 5,000 additional points per year as part of their increased card activity, allowing them to redeem points faster and at higher levels. The Billeo directory is featured by VISA, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Target, and many others."   » Continue Reading

CashEdge has announced that "CashEdge usage data for online payment, invoicing and collections during 2006 and through the first quarter of 2007, reflects the growth in adoption that was predicted by BAI's Small Business Payment Strategies research study in 2006, Aite Group's April 2006 survey of small businesses, and CashEdge's 2006 Small Business Survey. In June 2006, Bank of America became the first U.S. bank to offer electronic invoicing presentment and payment (EIPP) to small-business customers (through its Online Business Suite) and reports that the service has been extremely successful."   » Continue Reading

The July/August issue of BAI's Banking Strategies magazine is now available online. Articles include the cover story "Surviving in the Middle" (a look at BancorpSouth), "Attracting Deposits from Small Biz", "The Top 10 Lessons of Katrina", and "Bill Payment: Putting Banks Back in Control".

PaySimple and Billeo have announced a partnership to address the business demand for online payment capability and the consumer demand for easy, online bill pay.   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced it is expanding its Points2U rewards program to include its online bill payment service. Financial institutions now have the option of deploying an integrated rewards program for any combination of credit, debit or electronic bill payment services.   » Continue Reading

Postilion, a division of S1 Corporation, has announced an alliance naming Metavante Corporation a strategic provider of electronic presentment and payment (EPP) services. Under the agreement, Postilion and Metavante will deliver an integrated self-service banking solution featuring expanded bill payment capabilities and an e-banking customer experience for financial institutions and their customers in the Americas.   » Continue Reading

Online Resources has announced piloting of an expedited payments service that enables financial institutions to offer their consumers and small businesses online bill payments that are posted by billers on the same day.   » Continue Reading

A new study from ForeSee Results and Forbes.com has found that "customers who pay bills through their bank’s website are more satisfied with the bank and the online banking experience than those who don’t, and are significantly more likely to purchase additional services from the bank. The data suggests that converting online bankers to online bill paying customers represents the best opportunity for banks and credit unions to increase share of wallet while driving customers toward the most cost-efficient channel for services."   » Continue Reading

A new survey sponsored by CheckFree and conducted by Harris Interactive and the Marketing Workshop concludes that, for the first time, consumers in Internet-connected households are paying more of their bills online than by paper check. "Online payments made up 39 percent of the total volume of bill payments among online households, an increase of 4 percent over the previous December 2005 survey. In contrast, the volume of checks sent through the mail fell 4 percent to 34 percent of the overall volume."   » Continue Reading

Financial Insights has announced the results of a consumer survey of over 1,000 U.S. adults revealing their usage of a variety of new and emerging payment methods - finding a downward shift in the use of closed-loop (single merchant) gift cards, a shift to open-loop (multi merchant) gift cards, the rapid adoption of online payment security systems, and the decline in the influence of rewards programs in card usage outside of a niche demographic.   » Continue Reading

Following its acquisition of Digital Insight by Intuit five weeks ago, they've announced Personal FinanceWorks and Small Business FinanceWorks - saying these two products are "expected to lead the next generation of online banking."   » Continue Reading

Jeff Randall writes an opinion piece for the UK's Telegraph about BT's plan to charge consumers extra fees (£4.50 per quarter - billing is done quarterly) when they pay their bills by cash or cheque - or any other way except direct debit. According to Randall, "BT's goal is to cajole as many people as possible to sign for direct debits. This helps push up profits, by cutting down administration costs." Dave Birch blogs about the change on the Digital Money Blog.

Javelin Strategy & Research has published a new report titled "Expedited Bill Payments Forecast 2007 to 2009: Effective Strategies to Create Revenue and Enhance Relationships" (Preview PDF) that examines the future of expedited bill payments—services that enable consumers to make last minute bill payments—and how they represent a viable revenue opportunity for billers and financial institutions.

Aliaswire has announced the general availability of PayVox, a "Voice-Activated Bill Payment solution that has been designed exclusively for the prepaid card industry. Using just a prepaid debit card, PayVox allows users to pay bills over the phone or the web in a manner previously only available to on-line banking bill-pay customers."   » Continue Reading

comScore Networks has released the results of a study analyzing usage of online bill payment services at leading banks - "defined as paying a bill online from a checking, savings, or money market account using the functionality in the bill pay portion of the bank's Web site and where the recipient of the money is not the bank itself. According to the study, among those consumers who had one or more checking, savings, or money market accounts and who used online bank bill pay during the quarter with a leading financial institution Bank of America achieved 65 percent penetration in Q4 2006. Wells Fargo ranked second in penetration of online bill payers, with a level of 18 percent, followed by Chase and Wachovia (each achieved 13 percent penetration)."   » Continue Reading

The Pew Research Center has published a report on "What Americans Pay For - and How" (PDF) - concluding that nearly three-in-ten adults (28%) say the most common way they take care of their regular monthly bills is by an online or electronic payment. A bare majority (54%) mostly uses checks, and a small minority (15%) mostly uses cash.

Forrester's Catherine Graeber has published a new report titled "EBPP Forecast: 2006 To 2011" that forecasts growth in electronic bill presentment and payment. "In 2005, electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) adoption grew by 34%, the highest annual growth rate in four years. Robust adoption growth is expected during the next five years. as the number of EBPP users will grow by 63% to roughly 60 million households."

Metavante's LINK2GOV has introduced incometaxpayment.com - a new web site that supports Federal balance-due tax payments for a $2.95 flat fee, no matter the amount, when initiated with a debit card. Debit cards issued on the NYCE, Star or PULSE networks are supported). According to LINK2GOV, "never before has PIN-less debit been a card option for Federal balance-due tax payments; and the $2.95 convenience fee charged at incometaxpayment.com is the only flat-fee option available anywhere. Payments made at incometaxpayment.com are authorized in real time and the payment date is the same date the transaction was successfully completed."   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced that Tampa Electric has begun using Metavante's Just Pay It Convenience solution -which enables billers to accept credit and debit card-based expedited bill payments with a same-day posting capability.   » Continue Reading

Bankrate.com's Ellen Cannon has been posting on her Plastic Rap blog about the recent publication by the U.S. Census Bureau of its 126th Statistical Abstract of the United States - and some of the numbers regarding Americans, their debts, and their use of various payment methods and online bill payment based upon age.

CheckFree and SunTrust have announced a multi- year contract extension where SunTrust will continue to offer CheckFree Web and will add CheckFree's FraudNet fraud engine to its online banking service.   » Continue Reading

Online Resources Corp. has announced the launch of a mobile banking and bill payment service - "a hosted application that enables financial institutions to provide their consumers with a full range of online services via mobile phones and other wireless devices."   » Continue Reading

Dave McClure blogs about his issues with Yahoo!'s Bill Payment service - and closes with a tease: "As a matter of fact, the whole financial / payments online space seems ripe for some Web 2.0 innovation. Watch this space."

Vesta Corporation has announced it has acquired Point and Pay, Inc., a provider of electronic payments for county and municipal governments.   » Continue Reading

InComm has announced that its new payment kiosks are "enabling retailers to offer their customers a self-service solution to pay utility or wireless bills, top up prepaid wireless, buy new songs for mp3 players and more."   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has published a new report title "Small-Business Banking: The Value Proposition for Banks to Offer Small-Business EIPP" that "evaluates the size of the EIPP opportunity for U.S. banks and builds a case for banks to offer the service."   » Continue Reading

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Visa USA have announced "the start of an 18-month pilot program that will enable millions of Californians to pay their utility bills conveniently using Visa-branded payment cards, such as consumer debit, credit and prepaid cards. PG&E is one of the country's largest providers of natural gas and electric service and is now the nation's largest utility company to offer its residential customers the option of using a Visa card for their monthly payments."   » Continue Reading

Jane Kim writes for the Wall St. Journal about some of the new features that banks are adding to their online banking sites - including faster bill paying to help cause more consumers to sign up for online bill payment.

CheckFree has announced that more than 40 financial institutions will deploy CheckFree FraudNet, its automated fraud detection and case management system, by the end of 2006. According to CheckFree, "two of the nation's top 10 national banks, five super-regional banks, as well as brokerage firms, credit unions and community banks, are among the institutions that have already implemented CheckFree FraudNet and achieved tangible results." CheckFree also announced today that consumers who pay bills online through banks that utilize CheckFree FraudNet will receive enhanced payment protection beginning in January 2007.   » Continue Reading

CheckFree has introduced a suite of Online Channel Optimization Solutions the company says is "designed to help financial institutions expand their reach and generate opportunities to acquire new customers at reduced cost, build deeper customer relationships to increase retention, and drive revenue growth and profitability by leveraging up-sell and cross-sell opportunities."   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced a reciprocal agreement with Yodlee "that infuses Metavante electronic bill payment with Yodlee’s proprietary credit and debit card payment functionality, and integrates Yodlee solutions with Metavante’s electronic bill payment processing capabilities."   » Continue Reading

CheckFree and Firethorn Holdings have announced an exclusive partnership agreement to deliver mobile banking and bill payment services to financial institutions.   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced the availability of Metavante Prepaid Bill Payment, a new service that "makes bank-sponsored Internet bill pay available to consumers who use prepaid debit cards as an alternative to traditional checking accounts and banking relationships."   » Continue Reading

CheckFree has announced the results of a 2006 survey by Lieberman Research Worldwide on consumer bill payment behaviors. "The survey, a follow-up to a study announced in 2004 that first introduced Americans to six segments of bill-payer personalities, found that consumers today are more trusting of the Internet, particularly when it comes to financial management, and that there has been a significant, positive shift in several of the bill payment behavioral categories. The survey was conducted by Lieberman Research Worldwide, a Los Angeles-based firm that specializes in consumer segmentation research."   » Continue Reading

Target has introduced a new bill payment offering for its Target Visa REDcard cardholders that encourages the use of their Target Visa cards to make either automatic or manual bill payments at biller-direct web sites while earning rewards and avoiding having to write checks to pay bills.

The supplemental data provided by Bank of America as part of its third quarter earnings release includes one very interesting chart on page 19 - titled "E-Commerce & BankofAmerica.com".   » Continue Reading

CheckFreePay, a business unit of CheckFree Corporation, has announced CheckFreePay Link, a new service that will allow retailers with multiple locations to offer customers the ability to pay bills from leading companies in person.   » Continue Reading

Yodlee has announced the Yodlee BillPay Account Accelerator, a new service that "removes the hassles of canceling an existing bill pay service and setting up payments all over again with a new bill pay provider." Yodlee also says that the service "frees the 40+ million online bill payers to choose the service that’s best for them, and enables financial providers with differentiated bill pay services to capture a greater share of the fast growing bill pay market."   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced a new report: "The Consumer Adoption of Alerts Doubles: What Do Consumers Want Now?" that reviews how electronic alerts are growing rapidly and forecasts growth to double yet again. According to Javelin, "alert adoption by online households has grown steadily from 13% to 25% in the past two years -- with most users using email or even text-message alerts to receive timely updates of low balances, transfers, bills due or paid, and more."   » Continue Reading

Fiserv has announced the launch of Paytraxx, "a new online bill payment solution designed to help financial institutions capture and retain the high-profit and next-generation customers that are driving demand in the growing market for bill payment service."   » Continue Reading

Floyd Norris writes for the New York Times about what happened at CheckFree - reporting disappointing earnings on Tuesday resulting in its stock price falling 14 percent yesterday.

Luladey Tadesse reports for the Gannett News Service that "consumers fed up with writing checks and the hassle of buying stamps increasingly are switching to paying bills online." She reports that about 35 percent of bills were paid online last year by Americans, up from 25 percent in 2004, according to the online market research firm Harris Interactive Inc.

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report that finds walk-in bill payments represent a significant portion of the recurring bill payment market in the United States. According to Mercator, at the current rate of growth, over $80 billion in walk-in bill payments will be processed by 2009.   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced the availability of its new expedited payments solution, Just Pay It ® Convenience, that enables billers to accept credit and debit cards, PIN-less debit and electronic checks processed through ACH.   » Continue Reading

Billeo has announced what it says is the largest online biller directory with over 5,200 entries. The Billeo directory consists of billers accepting online payments across 26 different categories -- half accept payment cards, and nearly all accept eChecks. Billeo is currently providing the biller directory search for Visa USA and twenty other banks including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia.

Bruce Mohl reports for the Boston Globe that while credit and debit cards are being accepted at more and more places, some companies are starting to charge a premium for the service, possibly in violation of a Massachusetts law. According to Mohl, the state law says "no seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means."

Yodlee has announced that Yodlee BillPay now lets consumers pay bills with credit or debit cards, not just ACH - "enabling financial institutions to earn interchange revenue, while consumers can earn rewards points and benefit from faster payments."   » Continue Reading

NWP Services Corporation and CheckFree have announced a new resident payment solution, branded as aBreeze, combining NWP's multi-housing billing services capabilities with CheckFree's payment processing expertise to provide residents with a flexible variety of payment options for rent, utilities and other resident fee balances.   » Continue Reading

TranSend and Aliaswire have announced they will offer Aliaswire's multi-interface bill payment services to all of TranSend's Axcess America cardholder base, enabling universal bill payment capability via voice, wireless, and web channels for the prepaid marketplace.   » Continue Reading

Kiosk Marketplace links to a white paper from Source Technologies (PDF) about in-person bill payments using kiosks.