Metavante is to acquire the assets of Spectrum EBP, the bank-backed switch for exchanging online bills and payments. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Metavante plans to link Spectrum's switch technology with its own end-to-end electronic presentment and payment platform, which allows companies to electronically prepare bills and statements, and enable their customers to receive them and make payments on the Internet.
"This is the next logical step in the evolution of EBPP. The creation of the bank-centric switch model was a great achievement, and now it makes sense for a technology provider with the proven ability to handle large-volume financial transactions to become an end-to-end provider," says Sridhar Chityala, senior vice president, JPMorgan Chase - one of the founder banks of Spectrum.
Metavante has existing bill payment contracts with the three founding member banks of Spectrum, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia Corporation and Wells Fargo, each of which will remain in force.
Clyde Ostler, group executive vice president of Internet services, Wells Fargo, says: "We have all been impressed with Metavante's continued commitment to building its technology platform to serve billers and consumers alike, and this acquisition will augment its full suite of electronic presentment and payment services."
Earlier this month, Metavante announced plans to acquire the assets of online bill management company, Paytrust.