The program is the first ever capable of linking financial institutions' online bill-payment services directly to Western Union's thousands of billers. These payment capabilities are featured in Yodlee's new Yodlee BillPay PayItAll solution, which is now available.

Although many consumers currently pay their bills online through their financial institutions, it may take up to several days for the financial institution to process the payment, send the funds to the biller - sometimes with a paper check draft - and for the biller to settle the account. Now, with this agreement, financial institutions and consumers will benefit from same-day and next-day online payments.

Western Union Payment Services is one of the most experienced providers of comprehensive bill-payment services. In 2006, it completed more than 249 million consumer-to-business transactions. Western Union allows consumers to send payments to billers directly through an Interactive Voice Response system (IVR), the biller's website or customer service representatives, or at one of 48,000 Western Union Agent locations in the U.S.

Yodlee, whose innovative online banking and bill-payment solutions lower cost and increase revenue for financial institutions, is the only bill-pay solution provider to distribute the Western Union capabilities as part of an integrated, end-to-end, online bill-payment solution. Western Union will process and settle the payments. Yodlee BillPay solutions are currently in implementation with three large financial institutions.

"We see this as a tremendous opportunity to improve the online banking and bill-pay experience for consumers and small businesses, while at the same time, enable our financial institution customers to generate significant new revenue," said Anil Arora, CEO of Yodlee. "The potential to expedite payments to thousands of billers satisfies a growing consumer and financial institution demand. Financial institutions and billers express the need for profitable payments models, and our arrangement with Western Union creates a win-win scenario for consumers and businesses."

"As consumer adoption of online banking increases, so does the need for enhanced payments processing," said Royal Cole, Executive Vice President, Western Union Payment Services. "Our offering with Yodlee expedites online banking payments reliably for consumers and cost-effectively for the billers. It's about saving time and money and being efficient."