NACHA's Pay It Green sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its Payments 2011 conference last week in Austin, Texas.
Showing posts with label ARC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARC. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
NACHA's Wheels
By Mark Brousseau
NACHA's Pay It Green sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its Payments 2011 conference last week in Austin, Texas.
NACHA's Pay It Green sport utility vehicle (SUV) at its Payments 2011 conference last week in Austin, Texas.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
No end in sight to paper checks
By Mark Brousseau
While the Federal Reserve Bank’s latest figures show that electronic payments continue to achieve strong growth, the data also suggests we’re still a long way off from the eagerly-anticipated “checkless” society.
With 28.8 billion checks written in 2010 -- the last year the Federal Reserve researched -- the number of checks written between 2007 and 2010 declined by about 6 percent per year. What’s more, 92 percent of checks are now cleared electronically between U.S. banks, according to the Federal Reserve’s research.
So what should remittance processors make of this data?
“It’s clear that U.S. check volumes continue to decline at a gradual rate,” says Creditron Founder and CEO Wally Vogel, “But checks are not likely to disappear any time soon.” While those might be sobering words from some paper-weary operations managers, they can take heart in the fact that paper deposits – a drag on costs and efficiency – are experiencing a rapid decline as Check 21 emerges as the method of choice for deposits (Vogel points to NACHA figures showing a big drop in Accounts Receivable Check Conversion volumes). “This is bad news for manufacturers of high-volume check encoding equipment, but it’s a great opportunity for providers of Check 21 remote deposit technology. There are many remittance shops that manually process their transactions, or have outdated solutions that don’t support Check 21. With banks continuing to lower their fees for Check 21 deposits, many of these shops will likely look for electronic solutions.”
Vogel notes that Creditron has recently seen strong demand for its Check 21 remote deposit capabilities. “The market is recognizing the value of remittance solutions that offer Check 21 remote deposit, as well as an image-based workflow. Against this backdrop, I think we are well-positioned for success and growth.”
What do you think?
While the Federal Reserve Bank’s latest figures show that electronic payments continue to achieve strong growth, the data also suggests we’re still a long way off from the eagerly-anticipated “checkless” society.
With 28.8 billion checks written in 2010 -- the last year the Federal Reserve researched -- the number of checks written between 2007 and 2010 declined by about 6 percent per year. What’s more, 92 percent of checks are now cleared electronically between U.S. banks, according to the Federal Reserve’s research.
So what should remittance processors make of this data?
“It’s clear that U.S. check volumes continue to decline at a gradual rate,” says Creditron Founder and CEO Wally Vogel, “But checks are not likely to disappear any time soon.” While those might be sobering words from some paper-weary operations managers, they can take heart in the fact that paper deposits – a drag on costs and efficiency – are experiencing a rapid decline as Check 21 emerges as the method of choice for deposits (Vogel points to NACHA figures showing a big drop in Accounts Receivable Check Conversion volumes). “This is bad news for manufacturers of high-volume check encoding equipment, but it’s a great opportunity for providers of Check 21 remote deposit technology. There are many remittance shops that manually process their transactions, or have outdated solutions that don’t support Check 21. With banks continuing to lower their fees for Check 21 deposits, many of these shops will likely look for electronic solutions.”
Vogel notes that Creditron has recently seen strong demand for its Check 21 remote deposit capabilities. “The market is recognizing the value of remittance solutions that offer Check 21 remote deposit, as well as an image-based workflow. Against this backdrop, I think we are well-positioned for success and growth.”
What do you think?
Same-day ACH suffering from “chicken and the egg” syndrome?
By Mark Brousseau
With remote deposit capture continuing to enjoy strong growth, some attendees at this week’s NACHA Payments conference in Austin, Texas, were left wondering what has become of same-day Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions – the hottest (and arguably most controversial) topic at NACHA Payments a few years back. The answer may be sobering for those who thought same-day ACH would be a clearly more appealing alternative to the same-day availability afforded by remote capture.
“The lack of same-day availability has always been a weakness of ACH,” notes Affirmative Technologies Chief Technology Officer George Bassous.
“Same-day ACH should be a magic bullet when it comes to turning back the rising volume of deposits made via Check 21 remote capture,” he says. “After all, Check 21 remote capture is a case of moving forward by taking two steps back: in order to get same-day availability, it requires the biller to continue dealing with checks.”
Bassous says there are a lot of advantages to same-day ACH. Chief among them, he said, is the ability to know much sooner whether a transaction is being returned. “Virtually any biller would be very interested in same-day ACH,” Bassous claimed.
So why hasn’t same-day ACH had better traction, much less driven back the growth of Check 21 remote capture transactions? “The issue is that the systems used by the ACH banks – particularly large ones – are so tied into old technology that when something new like same-day ACH comes along, they can’t do anything about it. This is the same issue that Secure Vault Payments is having. The situation with same-day ACH is a classic case of ‘chicken and the egg,’” Bassous explained.
Bassous doesn’t buy the argument that some banks won’t offer same-day ACH because they are afraid of cannibalizing their lucrative wire transfer volumes: “I haven’t heard that from banks and I think cards would be the bigger threat there.”
The bottom line is that many banks are not set-up for same-day ACH.
What do you think?
With remote deposit capture continuing to enjoy strong growth, some attendees at this week’s NACHA Payments conference in Austin, Texas, were left wondering what has become of same-day Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions – the hottest (and arguably most controversial) topic at NACHA Payments a few years back. The answer may be sobering for those who thought same-day ACH would be a clearly more appealing alternative to the same-day availability afforded by remote capture.
“The lack of same-day availability has always been a weakness of ACH,” notes Affirmative Technologies Chief Technology Officer George Bassous.
“Same-day ACH should be a magic bullet when it comes to turning back the rising volume of deposits made via Check 21 remote capture,” he says. “After all, Check 21 remote capture is a case of moving forward by taking two steps back: in order to get same-day availability, it requires the biller to continue dealing with checks.”
Bassous says there are a lot of advantages to same-day ACH. Chief among them, he said, is the ability to know much sooner whether a transaction is being returned. “Virtually any biller would be very interested in same-day ACH,” Bassous claimed.
So why hasn’t same-day ACH had better traction, much less driven back the growth of Check 21 remote capture transactions? “The issue is that the systems used by the ACH banks – particularly large ones – are so tied into old technology that when something new like same-day ACH comes along, they can’t do anything about it. This is the same issue that Secure Vault Payments is having. The situation with same-day ACH is a classic case of ‘chicken and the egg,’” Bassous explained.
Bassous doesn’t buy the argument that some banks won’t offer same-day ACH because they are afraid of cannibalizing their lucrative wire transfer volumes: “I haven’t heard that from banks and I think cards would be the bigger threat there.”
The bottom line is that many banks are not set-up for same-day ACH.
What do you think?
Friday, February 4, 2011
New NACHA rule will streamline remittance processing
By Mark Brousseau
Hoping to make automated clearing house (ACH) processing more appealing to businesses – especially smaller ones – NACHA is doing away with its outdated opt-out provisions for Accounts Receivable Check (ARC) Conversion and Back Office Conversion (BOC) transactions.
The new rules, which will be effective March 18, reverse a longstanding policy that requires billers and merchants to let consumers choose not to have their checks converted to electronic debits. Merchants and billers will still have to give notice to customers that their checks will be converted.
NACHA sees the rules change as particularly important as smaller merchants and billers look at adopting ACH payments as an alternative to remote deposit capture (RDC), which allows businesses to create images of checks and deposit them electronically to a financial institution.
With ARC, billers are able to convert paper checks they receive from consumers at designated lockboxes into electronic transactions. With BOC, merchants can batch consumer checks throughout the day and convert them later—typically, in a back office rather than at the point of sale—into electronic debits. While ARC and BOC opt-out rates have been marginal, typically running well under 1 percent of all consumers, the handling of these exception items was a big hassle for billers.
“This is a step in the right direction for businesses,” says US Dataworks Product Manager Leilani Doyle. “Businesses no longer are required to offer opt-out indicators on their remittance documents or worry about honoring an opt-out provision, if they don’t want to. This simplifies remittance processing. But the fact is, a miniscule number of opt-outs have been requested since the ARC rule was introduced. And, consumers are only becoming more comfortable with electronic payments.”
What do you think?
Hoping to make automated clearing house (ACH) processing more appealing to businesses – especially smaller ones – NACHA is doing away with its outdated opt-out provisions for Accounts Receivable Check (ARC) Conversion and Back Office Conversion (BOC) transactions.
The new rules, which will be effective March 18, reverse a longstanding policy that requires billers and merchants to let consumers choose not to have their checks converted to electronic debits. Merchants and billers will still have to give notice to customers that their checks will be converted.
NACHA sees the rules change as particularly important as smaller merchants and billers look at adopting ACH payments as an alternative to remote deposit capture (RDC), which allows businesses to create images of checks and deposit them electronically to a financial institution.
With ARC, billers are able to convert paper checks they receive from consumers at designated lockboxes into electronic transactions. With BOC, merchants can batch consumer checks throughout the day and convert them later—typically, in a back office rather than at the point of sale—into electronic debits. While ARC and BOC opt-out rates have been marginal, typically running well under 1 percent of all consumers, the handling of these exception items was a big hassle for billers.
“This is a step in the right direction for businesses,” says US Dataworks Product Manager Leilani Doyle. “Businesses no longer are required to offer opt-out indicators on their remittance documents or worry about honoring an opt-out provision, if they don’t want to. This simplifies remittance processing. But the fact is, a miniscule number of opt-outs have been requested since the ARC rule was introduced. And, consumers are only becoming more comfortable with electronic payments.”
What do you think?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Trends in ACH Dispute Management
Trends in ACH Dispute Management
Thursday, August 12 at 1 p.m. eastern
As ACH volumes have grown, so too have the number of ACH transaction disputes that processors must manage. Expensive to handle, these disputes are subject to a complex mix of rules and regulations, and can lead to hefty charge-offs if improperly managed. Just how big a problem are ACH disputes? This webinar will share the results of an exclusive survey of ACH processors on trends in ACH dispute management, including volumes, costs, levels of automation, future plans and more. Attendees will be able to benchmark their operations, gain actionable insights from our panelists, and learn what some processors are doing to automate their ACH dispute processing.
To register, e-mail Dave Nitchman of IAPP-TAWPI at dnitchman@tawpi.org.
Panelists:
Rossana Salaris, principal, Radix Consulting
Amer Khan, senior vice president, product and sales support, eGistics
Moderator:
Mark Brousseau, facilitator, IAPP-TAWPI Payments and Receivables Council
Thursday, August 12 at 1 p.m. eastern
As ACH volumes have grown, so too have the number of ACH transaction disputes that processors must manage. Expensive to handle, these disputes are subject to a complex mix of rules and regulations, and can lead to hefty charge-offs if improperly managed. Just how big a problem are ACH disputes? This webinar will share the results of an exclusive survey of ACH processors on trends in ACH dispute management, including volumes, costs, levels of automation, future plans and more. Attendees will be able to benchmark their operations, gain actionable insights from our panelists, and learn what some processors are doing to automate their ACH dispute processing.
To register, e-mail Dave Nitchman of IAPP-TAWPI at dnitchman@tawpi.org.
Panelists:
Rossana Salaris, principal, Radix Consulting
Amer Khan, senior vice president, product and sales support, eGistics
Moderator:
Mark Brousseau, facilitator, IAPP-TAWPI Payments and Receivables Council
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Same-day ACH settlement highlights need for better dispute management tools
By Ed Pearce (epearce@egisticsinc.com)
Last week's announcement by the Federal Reserve Board of posting rules for a new same-day automated clearing house (ACH) service brought the topic front and center. Everyone from industry analysts and bloggers to trade publications and associations have expounded the pros and cons of same-day settlement. But virtually unmentioned in the all the hubbub is the potential for more ACH disputes as a result of accelerated settlement -- a scenario most banks are ill-prepared to manage.
Starting next month, the Federal Reserve Banks will be offering a same-day settlement service for certain ACH debit payments through its FedACH service. FedACH customers may opt-in to the service by completing a participation agreement. The service will be limited to transactions arising from consumer checks converted to ACH and consumer debit transfers initiated over the Internet and phone. Same-day forward debit transfers will post to a financial institution's Federal Reserve account at 5 p.m. eastern time, while same-day return debit transfers will post at 5:30 p.m.
As a result of the faster settlement, banks undoubtedly will see more consumers coming into their branches complaining of unauthorized transactions. The limitations of traditional in-house ACH systems and the strict time constraints and complex processing requirements imposed by NACHA rules and Regulation E already have led to sharp increases in operations expenses and higher charge-offs associated with ACH disputes. A new influx of consumer disputes will require financial institutions to implement a more centralized, more streamlined approach to dispute management.
Several features will be critical:
• Real-time distributed data access to any authorized user, anywhere
• Intuitive search capabilities
• The ability to annotate comments to disputed transactions
• The ability to export data
• Expanded search capabilities
• Filtering capabilities to block and restrict access to certain transactions
• Unlimited data storage
It may be some time before same-day ACH settlement achieves critical mass. But the next generation of consumers will demand it. This means that banks must begin adapting their ACH infrastructure today or risk even higher operations costs, as well as falling behind the competition. And this includes deploying sophisticated solutions to manage the inevitable spike in ACH disputes.
Last week's announcement by the Federal Reserve Board of posting rules for a new same-day automated clearing house (ACH) service brought the topic front and center. Everyone from industry analysts and bloggers to trade publications and associations have expounded the pros and cons of same-day settlement. But virtually unmentioned in the all the hubbub is the potential for more ACH disputes as a result of accelerated settlement -- a scenario most banks are ill-prepared to manage.
Starting next month, the Federal Reserve Banks will be offering a same-day settlement service for certain ACH debit payments through its FedACH service. FedACH customers may opt-in to the service by completing a participation agreement. The service will be limited to transactions arising from consumer checks converted to ACH and consumer debit transfers initiated over the Internet and phone. Same-day forward debit transfers will post to a financial institution's Federal Reserve account at 5 p.m. eastern time, while same-day return debit transfers will post at 5:30 p.m.
As a result of the faster settlement, banks undoubtedly will see more consumers coming into their branches complaining of unauthorized transactions. The limitations of traditional in-house ACH systems and the strict time constraints and complex processing requirements imposed by NACHA rules and Regulation E already have led to sharp increases in operations expenses and higher charge-offs associated with ACH disputes. A new influx of consumer disputes will require financial institutions to implement a more centralized, more streamlined approach to dispute management.
Several features will be critical:
• Real-time distributed data access to any authorized user, anywhere
• Intuitive search capabilities
• The ability to annotate comments to disputed transactions
• The ability to export data
• Expanded search capabilities
• Filtering capabilities to block and restrict access to certain transactions
• Unlimited data storage
It may be some time before same-day ACH settlement achieves critical mass. But the next generation of consumers will demand it. This means that banks must begin adapting their ACH infrastructure today or risk even higher operations costs, as well as falling behind the competition. And this includes deploying sophisticated solutions to manage the inevitable spike in ACH disputes.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sputtering Check Conversion
By Mark Brousseau
While the latest statistics from Herndon, VA-based NACHA show that overall Automated Clearing House (ACH) volumes increased slightly in 2009 (2.6 percent compared to 2008 activity), Accounts Receivable Check (ARC) Conversion -- once the darling of remittance operations -- decreased by more than 10 percent during the same period. In 2009, there were approximately 2.4 billion ARC transactions, NACHA reports, compared to nearly 2.7 billion ARC transactions the previous year.
The drop in ARC volumes comes as no surprise to Creditron, Inc., Founder and CEO Wally Vogel (wvogel@creditron.com). Vogel expects ARC volumes to continue to fall as consumers move away from writing checks for recurring remittances and towards electronic mechanisms such as Internet-initiated payments (which registered a stout 9.7 percent volume increase in 2009, NACHA reports).
Vogel says that, "As far as we have seen, ARC is not really going anywhere among mid-volume processors. Our clients are either moving to Check 21 or staying with what they have. Many clients don't perceive a significant cost benefit if they already have an automated encoding solution."
Vogel adds that Creditron is seeing "slow but steady growth in Check 21 among its current clients, and virtually all of its new installations include Check 21. The biggest reason our clients are reluctant to implement ARC is the notification requirement, which isn't a factor if they go with Check 21."
What are you seeing?
While the latest statistics from Herndon, VA-based NACHA show that overall Automated Clearing House (ACH) volumes increased slightly in 2009 (2.6 percent compared to 2008 activity), Accounts Receivable Check (ARC) Conversion -- once the darling of remittance operations -- decreased by more than 10 percent during the same period. In 2009, there were approximately 2.4 billion ARC transactions, NACHA reports, compared to nearly 2.7 billion ARC transactions the previous year.
The drop in ARC volumes comes as no surprise to Creditron, Inc., Founder and CEO Wally Vogel (wvogel@creditron.com). Vogel expects ARC volumes to continue to fall as consumers move away from writing checks for recurring remittances and towards electronic mechanisms such as Internet-initiated payments (which registered a stout 9.7 percent volume increase in 2009, NACHA reports).
Vogel says that, "As far as we have seen, ARC is not really going anywhere among mid-volume processors. Our clients are either moving to Check 21 or staying with what they have. Many clients don't perceive a significant cost benefit if they already have an automated encoding solution."
Vogel adds that Creditron is seeing "slow but steady growth in Check 21 among its current clients, and virtually all of its new installations include Check 21. The biggest reason our clients are reluctant to implement ARC is the notification requirement, which isn't a factor if they go with Check 21."
What are you seeing?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
WEB payments up, unauthorized transactions down
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Companies experienced cost savings in 2009 as people switched to lower cost ACH bill payments and companies spent less time managing unauthorized debits.
WEB bill payments (ACH payments initiated at the billing company's website) grew 9.7% in 2009 vs. 2008 and unauthorized WEB debits decreased 13% down to 0.04%.
One utility company in Florida continued their strong growth in 2009. However, this utility company has not always grown their electronic payments at impressive rates. Looking back to 2004, the utility's electronic payment adoption rate was well below industry average. The utility company substantially increased their electronic payment options and integrated the entire payment process resulting in a tripling of their electronic payment adoption rate.
Source: NACHA, April 7, 2010
Companies experienced cost savings in 2009 as people switched to lower cost ACH bill payments and companies spent less time managing unauthorized debits.
WEB bill payments (ACH payments initiated at the billing company's website) grew 9.7% in 2009 vs. 2008 and unauthorized WEB debits decreased 13% down to 0.04%.
One utility company in Florida continued their strong growth in 2009. However, this utility company has not always grown their electronic payments at impressive rates. Looking back to 2004, the utility's electronic payment adoption rate was well below industry average. The utility company substantially increased their electronic payment options and integrated the entire payment process resulting in a tripling of their electronic payment adoption rate.
Source: NACHA, April 7, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
today Magazine Editor Mark Brousseau looks on as J&B Software's Mike Packer demonstrates the vendor's Mobile Deposit solution at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Mike Packer of J&B Software (pictured) demonstrates the vendor’s Mobile Deposit solution yesterday at NACHA’s Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The solution, developed by Mitek Systems and incorporating J&B Software’s workflow and check clearing capabilities, enables users to make remote check deposits using mobile smartphones.
“Mobile Deposit makes a lot of sense for companies that don’t have a lot of check volume, such as a business with five to six checks a week,” Packer says, adding that J&B Software would fall into that category since it receives most of its payments electronically. “Banks have been slow to move on this,” he says, noting the vendor has several pilots underway among its customers. “But in five to six months, we expect to have significantly more conversations on Mobile Deposit as bank IT budgets begin to loosen up. SaaS will help adoption by making it easier for banks to set-up mobile deposit.”
Packer says the vendor’s recently introduced SaaS delivery model for Mobile Deposit was generating a lot of interest at Payments 2010. The SaaS delivery model eliminates barriers to entry, allowing organizations to quickly adopt mobile deposit with minimal up-front cost and setup requirements, Packer says. “SaaS extends mobile deposit to millions of potential new users,” Packer says, noting Mobile Deposit is targeted to banks, brokerages, retailers, insurers, consumers and freight companies.
The solution captures check images through a mobile smartphone and prepares them for transmission to the financial institution as Check 21-compliant images using Mitek's mobile IMagePROVE technology. For security purposes, a complete audit trail of where, when and how each check was captured is logged. No data or images are stored on the smartphone, Packer says, and all communication is 128-bit encrypted.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Posted by Mark Brousseau
William Buser, director of sales, Pertech Resources, says he spoke with a “fair amount” of financial institutions at NACHA’s Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle that were interested in teller capture solutions. In the short time I was in the Pertech Resources booth, a number of prospects stopped by, as well as an analyst for a top financial services research firm.
“Some solutions vendors are saying that teller and back-counter branch capture are dead,” Buser says. “But many financial institutions, particularly smaller ones, still aren’t doing either one. What’s really happening is that financial institutions are telling these vendors they aren’t going to purchase a big, expensive batch-feed scanner for the branch. And we’re saying that they don’t have to.”
At Payments 2010, Pertech Resources was demonstrating a new compact workstation (pictured with Buser) for teller and branch capture that costs a fraction of the price of batch-feed scanners, and has the ability to swipe any magnetic card, including credit and debit cards. The workstation already is interfaced to a number of core processing solutions, including Fiserv, Jack Henry & Associates, and FIS, and soon Pertech anticipates that a core processing vendor will offer scanning software as part of a package for the workstation (meantime Pertech Resources offers it own). In addition, Buser says Pertech Resources plans to offer a software package for the device to read drivers licenses or healthcare cards.
The bottom line: “Teller and branch capture is alive and well if you have the right solution,” Buser says.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
R. Edwin Pearce (pictured, far left) and Dax French (far right), both of eGistics, Inc., greet employees of SunTrust this afternoon at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
R. Edwin Pearce, executive vice president of sales and corporate development for eGistics, hands Michele M. Naghoon, AAP, vice president, ACH production manager, SunTrust, the Flip camcorder that she one through eGistics' prize drawing at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Ed Bachelder, director of research, BlueFlame Consulting, reads the latest issue of his favorite magazine this afternoon at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
today Magazine Editor Mark Brousseau celebrates his birthday over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory during NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
today Magazine Editor Mark Brousseau greets George H. Bassous, chief technical officer, Affirmative Technologies, this afternoon at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Rick Krauss, ICP, associate consultant, accounts services in Dallas, Allstate Insurance Company, reads the latest issue of his favorite magazine this afternoon at NACHA's Payments 2010 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Monday, April 26, 2010
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services business continues to be the industry leader in ACH payments origination volume. J.P. Morgan was ranked first in ACH payments origination for 2009, according to NACHA, The Electronic Payments Association.
“J.P. Morgan’s commitment to quality has set the stage for our continued stability and our capacity to successfully support clients amidst the financial turmoil of the past year,” stated Pat Thelen, executive director, J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. “We are constantly challenging ourselves to improve efficiency, which enables us to help our clients further streamline their payment processes.”
J.P. Morgan continued its online payment growth in 2009, achieving an increase of 16 percent over the previous year. “This growth in electronic payments is a result of the increase in online payment transactions,” explained Thelen. “As consumers and small businesses increasingly adopt online banking tools that deliver a convenient, secure, electronic means of making payments, J.P. Morgan is helping clients manage these rising online banking volumes efficiently. While we continue to enable consumers to make payments electronically through Chase.com, we are similarly helping billers manage the accounts receivable process with products such as eLockbox. We support the entire electronic payments cycle for our clients.”
“J.P. Morgan’s commitment to quality has set the stage for our continued stability and our capacity to successfully support clients amidst the financial turmoil of the past year,” stated Pat Thelen, executive director, J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. “We are constantly challenging ourselves to improve efficiency, which enables us to help our clients further streamline their payment processes.”
J.P. Morgan continued its online payment growth in 2009, achieving an increase of 16 percent over the previous year. “This growth in electronic payments is a result of the increase in online payment transactions,” explained Thelen. “As consumers and small businesses increasingly adopt online banking tools that deliver a convenient, secure, electronic means of making payments, J.P. Morgan is helping clients manage these rising online banking volumes efficiently. While we continue to enable consumers to make payments electronically through Chase.com, we are similarly helping billers manage the accounts receivable process with products such as eLockbox. We support the entire electronic payments cycle for our clients.”
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Today’s announcement that NACHA was bringing its long-awaited Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) to market got me wondering whether NACHA was planning to leverage a similar concept to address inefficiencies with health payments. After all, the attributes of the ACH Network that NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep cited as key differentiators for electronic bill payment and presentment – ubiquity, efficiency, security and the ability to pass information and payments across the network – also would prove valuable in the healthcare payments space.
“Your intuition is correct,” Estep told me during an exclusive interview at NACHA’s Payments 2010 event at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. “Healthcare payments have many attributes that are addressed by the ACH Network: There is a lot of information that must accompany payments. There are a lot of parties involved. And there is a need for security. There are standards available today within the ACH Network that can help transport health payments in a secure way.”
While NACHA has not had conversations with healthcare organizations, Estep said, “NACHA has engaged in conversations with a lot of direct financial institution members as healthcare payments have become a more important issue. We also have spoken with legislators and other rule-making bodies in healthcare. We even created a very small page on the NACHA Web site on healthcare payments. We’re going to continue this dialogue in the next year or so and see where it leads.”
Today’s announcement that NACHA was bringing its long-awaited Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) to market got me wondering whether NACHA was planning to leverage a similar concept to address inefficiencies with health payments. After all, the attributes of the ACH Network that NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep cited as key differentiators for electronic bill payment and presentment – ubiquity, efficiency, security and the ability to pass information and payments across the network – also would prove valuable in the healthcare payments space.
“Your intuition is correct,” Estep told me during an exclusive interview at NACHA’s Payments 2010 event at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. “Healthcare payments have many attributes that are addressed by the ACH Network: There is a lot of information that must accompany payments. There are a lot of parties involved. And there is a need for security. There are standards available today within the ACH Network that can help transport health payments in a secure way.”
While NACHA has not had conversations with healthcare organizations, Estep said, “NACHA has engaged in conversations with a lot of direct financial institution members as healthcare payments have become a more important issue. We also have spoken with legislators and other rule-making bodies in healthcare. We even created a very small page on the NACHA Web site on healthcare payments. We’re going to continue this dialogue in the next year or so and see where it leads.”
TAWPI @ NACHA Payments
Posted by Mark Brousseau
NACHA is partnering with The Clearing House to bring its long-awaited Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) into production. NACHA made the announcement during a press briefing this morning at its Payments 2010 event at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. EBIDS, an Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network bill presentment and payment solution, has been a NACHA pilot program since 2008, operated by the Federal Reserve Banks.
EBIDS expands the capabilities of the ACH Network by enabling businesses to leverage its infrastructure to deliver electronic bills to consumer online banking accounts. The ACH Network supports electronic billing functions such as enrollment, bill presentment and enrollment maintenance, as well as bill payment. In the pilot, Verizon worked with J.P. Morgan to deliver eBills to customers at Wells Fargo and Dollar Bank. Since September 2008, 4.5 million transactions (including enrollments, enrollment acknowledgements, bill presentments and payments) were processed through the EBIDS pilot program.
“EBIDS really takes advantage of the core competencies of the ACH Network: ubiquity, efficiency, security, and the ability to pass information as well as payments across the network,” said NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep. “EBIDS, perhaps more than any other ACH service that we have introduced, brings value to all participants.”
The ubiquity of the ACH Network will help differentiate EBIDS from other EBPP solutions, Estep said. “The ubiquity of the ACH Network is lacking in the bill presentment space. EBIDS will allow billers to reach all of their customers like never before,” Estep explained. “Conversely, customers will find it advantageous to find all of their bills in one place.”
While electronic bill payment continues to gain traction, Estep noted that electronic bill presentment is still struggling with low penetration. Estep said that the ubiquity of EBIDS will provide benefits to “everybody who has to be involved, and there are a lot of players.”
“Consumers are aggressively migrating to online banking and financial management solutions,” said Russ Waterhouse, executive vice president, product development at The Clearing House. “As an ACH operator, we are in a unique position to provide financial institutions and their customers with a standardized, ubiquitous electronic bill presentment and payment solution.”
Studies show that consumers are increasingly migrating to online bill payment and presentment and specifically seeking a consolidated electronic solution – like EBIDS – to access their bills from a single location. According to a 2009 Javelin Strategy & Research study, 70 percent of online households pay bills via the Internet every month, while only 38 percent have viewed an eBill at a bank or consolidator site, thus reiterating the growth opportunity that exists for online bill presentment. Moreover, Javelin’s 2010 Green Billing Report finds that nearly half of consumers would be motivated to switch to online billing if there was a single online site that consolidated statements.
Biller adoption of EBIDS will be an ongoing area of emphasis as the technology transitions into full-scale production. Over the next several months, NACHA also will work to define the ACH Network fees associated with EBIDS.
“Reducing the volume of paper bills is a strategic goal at Verizon,” said Angeline DePauw, director, remittance processing, Verizon. “We believe EBIDS will help us achieve this goal while at the same time allowing us to expand our customer reach and reduce expenses and customer service calls.”
DePauw added that, “Verizon sends out 22 million bills a month, so if we could suppress just 1 million bills, it would be huge. Just consider the economics of eliminating all that postage.”
“EBIDS sets the stage for future ACH growth,” said Pat Thelen, executive director, J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. “We are confident that when we take this to our clients, they will the value.”
NACHA is partnering with The Clearing House to bring its long-awaited Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) into production. NACHA made the announcement during a press briefing this morning at its Payments 2010 event at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. EBIDS, an Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network bill presentment and payment solution, has been a NACHA pilot program since 2008, operated by the Federal Reserve Banks.
EBIDS expands the capabilities of the ACH Network by enabling businesses to leverage its infrastructure to deliver electronic bills to consumer online banking accounts. The ACH Network supports electronic billing functions such as enrollment, bill presentment and enrollment maintenance, as well as bill payment. In the pilot, Verizon worked with J.P. Morgan to deliver eBills to customers at Wells Fargo and Dollar Bank. Since September 2008, 4.5 million transactions (including enrollments, enrollment acknowledgements, bill presentments and payments) were processed through the EBIDS pilot program.
“EBIDS really takes advantage of the core competencies of the ACH Network: ubiquity, efficiency, security, and the ability to pass information as well as payments across the network,” said NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep. “EBIDS, perhaps more than any other ACH service that we have introduced, brings value to all participants.”
The ubiquity of the ACH Network will help differentiate EBIDS from other EBPP solutions, Estep said. “The ubiquity of the ACH Network is lacking in the bill presentment space. EBIDS will allow billers to reach all of their customers like never before,” Estep explained. “Conversely, customers will find it advantageous to find all of their bills in one place.”
While electronic bill payment continues to gain traction, Estep noted that electronic bill presentment is still struggling with low penetration. Estep said that the ubiquity of EBIDS will provide benefits to “everybody who has to be involved, and there are a lot of players.”
“Consumers are aggressively migrating to online banking and financial management solutions,” said Russ Waterhouse, executive vice president, product development at The Clearing House. “As an ACH operator, we are in a unique position to provide financial institutions and their customers with a standardized, ubiquitous electronic bill presentment and payment solution.”
Studies show that consumers are increasingly migrating to online bill payment and presentment and specifically seeking a consolidated electronic solution – like EBIDS – to access their bills from a single location. According to a 2009 Javelin Strategy & Research study, 70 percent of online households pay bills via the Internet every month, while only 38 percent have viewed an eBill at a bank or consolidator site, thus reiterating the growth opportunity that exists for online bill presentment. Moreover, Javelin’s 2010 Green Billing Report finds that nearly half of consumers would be motivated to switch to online billing if there was a single online site that consolidated statements.
Biller adoption of EBIDS will be an ongoing area of emphasis as the technology transitions into full-scale production. Over the next several months, NACHA also will work to define the ACH Network fees associated with EBIDS.
“Reducing the volume of paper bills is a strategic goal at Verizon,” said Angeline DePauw, director, remittance processing, Verizon. “We believe EBIDS will help us achieve this goal while at the same time allowing us to expand our customer reach and reduce expenses and customer service calls.”
DePauw added that, “Verizon sends out 22 million bills a month, so if we could suppress just 1 million bills, it would be huge. Just consider the economics of eliminating all that postage.”
“EBIDS sets the stage for future ACH growth,” said Pat Thelen, executive director, J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. “We are confident that when we take this to our clients, they will the value.”
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