CashEdge and Firethorn have announced a strategic relationship to bring to market an integrated mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments solution integrating CashEdge's POPmoney P2P payments service with Firethorn's Mobile Wallet solution. According to the companies, "the integrated mobile P2P solution will enable financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to send electronic payments using CashEdge's POPmoney from within their Firethorn mobile banking application, by simply using the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient. This comprehensive mobile P2P banking solution will give consumers greater control over their finances, enabling them to pay other people whenever and wherever they want." READ MORE

CashEdge has announced results from its fourth annual Consumer Online Banking Survey saying it "demonstrated an increasing demand for simple, secure person-to-person (P2P) payment services and the preference by consumers to get these services from their financial institution, rather than an independent service such as PayPal. Conducted annually by CashEdge, the study examines the behavior and preferences of more than 850 consumers nationwide aged 18 years and older who use online banking capabilities." READ MORE

On PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at CashEdge's new POPmoney person-to-person money transfer service. Carol interviewed CashEdge's Neil Platt, SVP & General Manager - US Banking, about the new service.

CashEdge has announced the launch of POPmoney - calling it "the first person-to-person payments (P2P) service for banks, enabling banks to provide simple and secure P2P payments from their online or mobile banking applications." READ MORE

CashEdge has announced that it facilitated the acquisition of more than $4.5 Billion in assets for its financial institution clients during 2008 through its online account opening and funding products – OpenNow/FundNow and OpenNow/FundNow Express, an increase of more than 27 percent from 2007. READ MORE

CashEdge has announced the launch of Small Business Me-to-Me Transfers, an online funds transfer product designed specifically to help financial institutions meet the needs of small businesses. READ MORE

CashEdge has introduced Intelligent Money Movement -- what the company calls "an enhanced version of the Company's money movement platform that provides consumers and small businesses simple, seamless access to conduct electronic money movement through online and mobile banking applications." READ MORE

CashEdge has announced "the launch of OpenNow/FundNow Express, an online account opening and funding solution designed specifically to enable small/mid-sized banks and credit unions to offer the same advanced online opening and funding account capabilities available at larger financial institutions." READ MORE

CashEdge has announced that it executed more than $38 billion in account-to-account transfers in 2007 - "a 300% percent increase over 2006 volume. The transfers were initiated by consumers through CashEdge's money movement solutions that are currently in use at nearly one-third of the top 75 banks in the United States."

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."

Verid has announced that CashEdge will integrate Verid's Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) technology into CashEdge's online account opening and funding solutions to enhance the depth and quality of its risk management capabilities using Verid's industry-leading KBA process, already in use at eight of the top ten financial institutions.

CheckFree has announced three new services powered by CashEdge. CheckFree Online Open and CheckFree Online Fund that are designed to help consumers establish and fund new accounts, in a matter of minutes. An automated decision-making engine processes the applications based on the financial institution's unique business rules for managing risk, while flagging any exceptions for manual review. CheckFree Online Transfer enables financial institutions to simplify the transfer of funds between accounts and create new revenue streams by extending their online offerings to include fee-based, intra- and inter- institution fund transfer services between accounts held at more than 23,000 banks, credit unions and brokerages.

CashEdge announced this morning that the Los Angeles Firemen's Credit Union, a credit union serving firefighters and their families in the state of California, is using CashEdge's OpenNow and FundNow services. OpenNow/FundNow enables prospective credit union members to securely open and fund a new account in real-time through the credit union's website.

Approximately 95 percent of new online account applicants drop out between enrollment and funding. By offering a single-session solution, CashEdge enables financial institutions to increase dramatically account completion rates among this valuable member-base. Online members are particularly attractive because they are less costly to acquire and more profitable, maintaining higher account balances, utilizing more services and exhibiting higher overall account activity.

Lavonne Kuykendall reports in today's American Banker on Citibank's new signature-free account opening process for new checking accounts via its web site. READ MORE