Norwest Joins MSFDC Internet-Based Bill Presentment and Payment Pilot
DENVER —
, Feb. 2, 1998 — MSFDC, the joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and First Data Corp., today announced its cooperation with Norwest Corp. in a pilot program that will enable Norwest home-banking customers to receive and pay a variety of bills over the Internet. Norwest also will join the pilot as a biller and plans to offer the bill presentment service to its commercial accounts. Norwest also will join the MSFDC Advisory Board.
“We are pleased to have Norwest as part of MSFDC’s pilot and on the advisory board,”
said Hank DeNero, executive vice president of First Data.
“Norwest brings both consumer marketing expertise and a strong commercial client base of billers who will benefit from their involvement with the service.”
Norwest, an $88.5 billion nationwide financial services company, joins a growing list of banks that want to provide their customers with state-of-the-art electronic bill presentment and payment options.
“We have been evaluating alternatives and have chosen MSFDC as one of the strategic companies we plan to work with in electronic commerce,”
said Les Biller, president and chief operating officer of Norwest.
“Microsoft and First Data are committed to pairing with financial institutions. The MSFDC business model provides significant opportunities for Norwest to serve our customers when, where and how they want to be served.”
Benefits for Banks and Consumers
Unlike current electronic bill payment services that charge banks for payments made by their online customers, the MSFDC service includes no fees for the branding banks, like Norwest. In fact, MSFDC will share revenues with financial institutions that offer the service. There also are revenue opportunities for banks that offer the MSFDC service to their commercial customers.
“MSFDC has shown a strong commitment to working with banks to help ensure that its technology fits with other banking industry initiatives,”
said Webb Edwards, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Norwest.
“As a member of the Banking Industry Technology Secretariat (BITS) advisory committee and as a co-owner of Integrion, we want to help integrate MSFDC services with these other initiatives. MSFDC has expressed a strong commitment to helping us achieve this.”
Norwest will customize MSFDC’s electronic bill presentment and payment system for its online banking customers. With the pilot service, Norwest customers will benefit from an efficient, easy-to-use bill management system that collects bills from participating billers and displays them at the Norwest bill presentation site. Using a standard industry browser, customers will be able to point and click to pay their bills in a fraction of the time they would typically take to write a check, record it in their check register, and stamp and mail the bill.
Benefits for Billers
For billers using the service, MSFDC provides a variety of services to give them complete control and efficiency in bill delivery and collection, such as returning error-free remittances, allowing full involvement in the bill’s image and design, and providing flexible payment options. Billers pay MSFDC a fee, roughly equivalent to the cost of postage, to deliver an electronic version of a bill or statement to their customers via a branded site, such as Norwest Online Services. For no additional cost, MSFDC also returns the remittance information (such as a bill stub) and payment instructions to the biller or the biller’s lockbox.
About Norwest Corp.
Norwest Corp. provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through 4,087 stores in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere internationally.
About MSFDC
Based in Denver, MSFDC is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and First Data Corp. formed in June 1997. In summer 1998, the company is scheduled to introduce the nation’s first end-to-end system for electronic presentment of richly formatted bills over the Internet, as well as next-generation electronic payment and remittance capabilities. MSFDC’s service, which will use existing payment systems, will allow consumers to access and pay their bills through the branded home-banking services of participating financial institutions.
To implement the MSFDC system, MSFDC launched a Systems Integrator Program last week that will provide banks and billers the option of choosing from an extensive pool of professional technology companies that are trained on the MSFDC systems. Systems integrators will offer a variety of products and services including consulting, development, integration, Web-based design, support and ongoing maintenance. Seventeen nationally recognized solution providers are currently signed up with the Systems Integrator Program.
For more information on MSFDC, visit its Web site at http://www.msfdc.com/ .
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