Utilizing an innovative Internet-based bill payment network, these new solutions enable consumers to make same day payments, and to pay with a credit or debit card to earn loyalty and rewards points. For financial service providers (FSPs), these solutions present a unique opportunity to earn interchange and finance fee revenues, turning EBPP from a cost center into a profit center.

"For years bill payment services have been an expensive but necessary proposition for financial service providers in order to attract and retain customers. Now - for the first time ever - financial institutions can offer a superior, free bill pay service and actually profit from it," said Hill Ferguson, General Manager of EBPP Solutions at Yodlee. "This is a winning proposition for all parties - consumers, financial institutions, and billers - because BillDirect leverages the biller-direct efficiencies and provides superior functionality for end users."

Making Bill Pay Useful and Profitable

More than 30 million households pay bills online today, and this number is expected to exceed 50 million in the next few years, according to Online Banking Report. Yodlee's BillDirect is the only EBPP product to leverage the benefits of both the biller direct and consolidator models while delivering the richest bill presentment and unique, transaction-level alerts for monitoring fraud and avoiding overdraft charges and late payments. Yodlee's first EBPP offering, BillDirect, was launched earlier this year with AOL and LowerMyBills.com. BillDirect for Card Issuers is the first EBPP offering to enable same day, card-based payments so consumers can earn reward and loyalty points.

BillDirect for Card Issuers: A New EBPP Approach

With BillDirect for Card Issuers, users can: view bills, pay bills (via multiple payment options), schedule one-time and recurring payments, track payments and bill history, auto-register for online accounts, and receive customized alerts - all in one complete, easy to use online solution.

Key Benefits for Consumers:

Same Day Payments - consumers can make payments in real-time directly to their billers - the fastest payment speed in the marketplace today.

Ability to Earn Reward/Loyalty Points with Every Payment - via the use of credit card and debit card payments.

Flexible Payment Options with Credit & Debit Cards - consumers can pay bills with their credit or debit card instead of requiring payment solely from a DDA account.

Rich Bill Presentment - only Yodlee presents bills from over 2,800 billers.

Personalized Alerts - Alerts deliver emails for a host of important events, including receipt of a new bill, automated payment made for a bill, due date reminders, and more.

Key Benefits for FSPs:

Revenue - Financial Service Providers can finally make EBPP an attractive business opportunity, earning new interchange and finance fee revenue through the use of credit and debit card payments.

Lower Cost - By leveraging its core account aggregation platform, Yodlee's BillDirect costs up to 70% less than competing EBPP platforms.

"This is a revolutionary new approach to EBPP that we believe will drive unparalleled usage and adoption of online bill pay as more financial institutions launch this unique offering and as more consumers realize the benefits of BillDirect for paying and managing all their bills," said Anil Arora, president and CEO, Yodlee. "The next year is going to mark a very interesting time for the evolution of online payments."