Top Home-Banking Solution Providers Join TransPoint Technology Associate Program

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Dec. 1, 1998 — TransPoint today announced that five new home-banking solution providers will join the Technology Associate Program to help banks and other consumer service providers implement Internet bill delivery and payment (IBDP) quickly. ALLTEL Corp., Digital Insight, M & I Data Services, nFront and Security First Technologies Corp. will join other leading vendors in providing financial institutions with TransPoint Internet bill delivery and payment solutions.

The five new members of the TransPoint Technology Associate Program join a growing list of bank-specific solution providers, including Corillian Corp., Edify Corp., First Data Direct Banking and InteliData Technologies Corp.

“The Technology Associate Program is a vital step in the process of making IBDP a reality,” said Ralph Young, executive vice president of TransPoint. “The TransPoint Technology Associates will help us offer banks maximum flexibility in customizing their Internet bill delivery and payment system, while minimizing their time to market.”

A recent independent survey* commissioned by TransPoint suggests that there is compelling incentive for banks to get IBDP up and running. The following survey results were gathered from Americans who have used the Internet at home during the past 30 days:

  • Approximately 40 percent of respondents interested in e-bill service prefer to receive and pay their bills at a bank’s Web site. About 19 percent prefer to receive and pay their bills at a biller’s Web site. And about 12 percent prefer to receive and pay their bills at an Internet portal site.

  • Nearly 98 percent of consumers interested in an Internet bill service said the ability to access full bill detail, as on a paper bill, is an important feature to them.

  • Nearly 95 percent responded that an important feature in an Internet bill service is efficient customer service.

  • Nearly 90 percent of consumers interested in receiving and paying bills via the Internet said they prefer to do so at only one Web site.

“We know that consumers want the convenience of online banking,” said James S. Mahan III, chief executive officer of Security First Technologies, citing recent surveys. “By adding robust bill delivery and virtually one-click payment systems, like the TransPoint e-bill service, we’re providing our clients with a competitive edge for online services. This exciting relationship with TransPoint is part of our continuing efforts to provide our client banks, brokerage companies and insurance firms with cutting-edge solutions for e-customers. Expanded bill delivery and payment mechanisms provide financial services institutions with valuable services that, without a doubt, will retain customers and increase revenues.”

The TransPoint Technology Associate Program enables banks to deploy integrated Internet bill delivery services with their existing home-banking offerings, based on industry standards. These associates will work with TransPoint to build solutions based on the soon-to-be-released OFX 2.0 specification, which will use the broadly supported Internet format eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

“As the banking industry continues to move toward Internet banking, banks’ top priority will be adding value to their Web site,” Young said. “IBDP does this and strengthens banks’ relationships with their customers by providing opportunities for frequent customer contact, interactive marketing and efficient customer service.”

Existing members of the TransPoint Technology Associate Program for financial institutions and billers include the following companies:

  • Atlantic Data Services Inc.

  • BlueGill Technologies

  • Corillian Corp.

  • CSC

  • Data Processing Resources Corp.

  • Edify Corp.

  • First Data Direct Banking

  • InteliData Technologies Corp.

  • Interface Systems Inc.

  • Manley Consulting Group Inc.

  • Xerox Connect Inc.

About TransPoint

Formerly MSFDC, TransPoint is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and First Data Corp., formed in June 1997. Citibank is a minority equity investor in TransPoint. In early 1999, the company is scheduled to introduce the nation’s first end-to-end system for Internet bill delivery and payment. TransPoint’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, as well as other customer service providers. TransPoint is based in Englewood, Colo. For more information, visit http://www.transpoint.com/ .

*The survey was conducted by Market Facts, a leading independent survey company. The survey was conducted among 1,000 randomly selected U.S. households, with +/- 3.1 percentage error at a 95 percent confidence level.

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TransPoint is a trademark of MSFDC.

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