Financial institutions, including South Shore Savings Bank, have begun expanding their Metavante relationships to include the new service, which enables consumers to make same-day or overnight bill payments. South Shore Savings Bank is headquartered in South Weymouth, Mass., and serves 15 locations along the South Shore of Massachusetts.

Metavante can now enable financial institution-based online bill pay customers to make expedited payments to virtually any biller using their bank's Web site, helping minimize some concerns about late payment fees, service disruption or possible harm to credit ratings. From the financial institutions' point of view, Metavante's new solution creates an opportunity to generate revenue from last-minute payments and online bill payments as a whole. Metavante supports expedited payments options including same-day or overnight electronic payments and the opportunity to request overnight delivery of a check to payees.

"We have found that our customers are increasingly looking for more from their Internet bill pay services, and we wanted to give them additional options," said John Boucher, president and chief executive officer, South Shore Savings Bank. "By implementing Metavante's expedited payments solution, we're empowering our customers to pay their bills in one place - sometimes even at the last minute."

South Shore Savings Bank is offering expedited payments as an extension of its larger electronic presentment and payment relationship with Metavante.
The bank already uses Metavante Bill Payment Manager, a fully outsourced online bill payment solution. Metavante's expedited payments solution stands as one of the first generally available, financial institution-centric expedited payments product to be integrated with traditional online bill pay functionality. It's available now for Metavante clients using its hosted online bill pay solution.

"According to the findings of extensive market research vital to the development of this product, Metavante's expedited payments solution allows our clients to deliver the innovative bill payment functionality their customers are asking for," said Jeff Lewis, division president, Metavante ePayment Solutions. "Consumers are asking for expedited payment options that help them avoid late payments and credit report hits, and they prefer those tools at their bank's Web site. Expedited payments delivers on that consumer demand, expands the benefits on the online channel and may help turn bill pay into a revenue-generator for financial institutions."

Seeking a deeper understanding of consumer behaviors and preferences related to adoption and use of bill pay, Metavante sponsored consumer research by Javelin Strategy & Research. The results reconcile the historically stated consumer preference for online bill pay through their financial institution, with the continued use of biller-direct Web sites in greater numbers.

"Metavante's bill pay market research found "payment velocity" to be a key driver for a consumer's selection of where and how a bill is paid. Nearly 70 percent of consumers paying at biller sites indicated a belief their payment would be received quicker this way - twice the number for those paying at a financial institution site," continued Lewis. "Expedited payments address the speed issue for financial institutions from a technology standpoint, but there's still a matter of perception. Our recently completed research directly addresses how to influence consumer preference around bill pay and can help our clients develop deeper relationships with their customers."