UK clearing house joint venture to provide online payment service
- Posted:
- 14:27 19 Apr 2004
- Topics:
- Utility Computing & On-Demand Computing
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
