Electronic Bill Payment

Internet banking and bill-payment services provider Online Resources Corp. this week unveiled its expedited bill-pay service for financial institutions and walk-up providers to offer to consumers and small-business users, ratcheting up rivalries in the fast-growing realm of last-minute payments. While the expedited bill-pay market has some bigger competitors, including Fiserv …

Some high-profile payment-industry technology providers are reporting increases in their operating measures but are still struggling to make a profit in 2008 as they expand or try to compete in a tough market. –Boosted by demand in North America for countertop terminals and more networking and other services revenues, point-of-sale …

Only one-fifth of financial institutions are using technologies that can authenticate e-mail messages, even though phishing attacks disproportionately affect banks and even though banks say they plan to rely more heavily on the e-mail channel to reach customers, a new research report says. Meanwhile, phishing attacks are not only increasing, …

Green, as in save the environment, and green, as in cash, can be two effective appeals financial institutions can use to persuade consumers to pay bills electronically through bank Web sites, though banks should be especially careful about cash incentives, researchers claim. And the security worries consumers express about electronic …

Metavante Corp. on Tuesday announced software that the Milwaukee-based processor and NACHA, the rules-setting organization for the automated clearing house network, say will make it possible for more banks to participate in a new online payment product NACHA plans to start piloting in less than a month. “This [software] is …

Less than a year after launching a commercial, handset-based banking and bill-payment program in the U.S., Citigroup Inc. announced it is working with a major South Korean telecommunications company to offer mobile banking around the world. The San Francisco-based joint venture, Mobile Money Ventures LLC, will be equally owned by …

Walk-in bill-payment provider IPP of America Inc. on Tuesday announced it had raised $20.5 million from three institutional investors, capital that will enable the fast-growing company to expand its physical presence and add more billers to its network. The investment also represents the first round of venture-capital financing arranged by …

In an effort related to a broader initiative to tighten risk management in the automated clearing house network, NACHA this week announced its voting membership has approved a rule that requires companies that originate transactions to identify themselves with names their customers will recognize. The new rule, which goes into …

Visa Inc., which is planning an initial public stock offering this year, processed 9.1 billion transactions in its fiscal 2008 first quarter ended Dec. 31, up 1.1 billion or 13% from 8 billion a year earlier, according to the quarterly report the No. 1 payment network filed Feb. 4 with …

Three months after Wachovia Corp. began offering a mobile-banking service based on a software application installed in customers' handsets (Digital Transactions News, Nov. 13, 2007), the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking company is seeing new enrollments in the service rise at an average of 40% per week, while 10% of enrollments have …