Electronic Bill Payment

Consumers are willing to engage in more e-commerce if banks, auction sites, and other Web-based service providers offer strong authentication, particularly that based on hardware devices, to protect against fraud, a survey shows. Almost half of consumers surveyed said they would be more or much more likely to switch to …

The electronic delivery of bills to consumers grew 11% in the second quarter at CheckFree Corp., continuing a trend of double-digit growth in e-bill delivery for the Atlanta, Ga.-based bill-payment processor. The company distributed 41 million e-bills in the quarter, up from 36.8 million in the first quarter and 58% …

Fiserv Inc. is buying electronic bill-payment processor BillMatrix Corp. in a $350-million deal expected to close by Sept. 30. Dallas-based BillMatrix processes payments on cards and through the automated clearing house for more than 120 clients, among them utilities, insurers, lenders, and phone carriers. It is a pioneer in the …

Although the conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions at billers' lockboxes and other central locations is growing at a torrid rate, it will level off by 2008, in part because check volumes are dropping faster than expected, according to a new research report. The 3-year-old conversion process, in which …

The steady drumbeat of card-data breaches is a major factor causing rising anxiety among consumers who use the Internet for shopping and other financial transactions, the Conference Board reported today. In a quarterly survey of 10,000 households sponsored by the New York-based business organization, 13% of all online consumers say …

PIN-less debit may be gathering momentum for online bill payments, but not all potential billers are convinced they should offer the payment method, which depends on the same networks that switch PIN-based debit transactions at the point of sale and at ATMs. Because it carries lower acceptance costs than credit …

Eyeing what it sees as a huge opportunity in processing bill payments, U.K.-based Retail Decisions PLC's U.S. processing unit this month will begin offering the fastest-growing form of electronic check now available: accounts-receivable conversion, or ARC. Retail Decisions USA Inc., which has built its business providing a card-based risk-management and …

CheckFree Corp. will begin piloting PIN-based debit transactions in its extensive walk-in bill-payment network before the end of the year. The Atlanta-based processor is also investigating the possibility of adding a PIN-less debit feature to its online and telephone-based bill-payment network for so-called biller-direct transactions, though it has no definite …

Chase Merchant Services LLC has launched a processing and consulting arm aimed at helping billers set up and manage bill-payment services. In a press briefing today, Chase executives stressed the new service, called BillPay Recurring Biller Solutions, would embrace cards as well as alternative payment types such as the automated …

The cause of strong authentication for Web-based transactions took a major step forward today with the announcement from banking giant Bank of America Corp. that it is implementing a two-factor authentication system for its online banking service. With 13.2 million users, including 6.4 million bill payers, BofA's service is the …