UK clearing house Bacs has embarked on a joint venture with
a US software company to provide an online bill presentation and
payment service for UK banks.
Bacs and CheckFree, a specialist in electronic billing whose
products are used by more than 1,100 financial services companies,
will allow consumers to view and pay bills from their bank's
website. Bacs, which processes direct debits and direct credit
salary payments, aims to sign-up a high street bank and utility
company for the service by the end of the year.
The service is the first example of Bacs diversifying away from its
core payment clearing business - the plans for which were revealed
by Computer Weekly in 2002.
Although some banks and utility companies offer online bill viewing
and payment services, Bacs and CheckFree believe there is a gap in
the market for an industry-wide service. Benefits for banks include
reduced costs by cutting out paper billing and encouraging
customers to visit the banking site more frequently.
Martin Kearsley, managing director of the company set up to deliver
the service, said, "There are significant business advantages for
billers and banks to adopt the service, and I believe it will
change the way consumers manage their money."
Anthony Miller, research director at analyst firm Ovum Holway, said
Bacs' joint venture complemented its core business but questioned
whether there was enough demand for online bill presentation and
payment services in the UK.
Meanwhile, Bacs is migrating 50,000 corporate customers onto a new
IP-based network. Users have until the end of 2005 to upgrade their
Bacs connection software before the old private network is switched
off.
Benefits of the network for customers will include faster payment
confirmation and the ability to track the progress of payments
online, rather than having to wait for receipts for confirmation.