ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 5, 1999 — TransPoint LLC today announced that seven new banks have joined its Internet bill delivery and payment pilot program, allowing them to provide TransPoint
™
e-bills to their online banking customers. TransPoint is the joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and First Data Corp., with Citibank as a minority equity investor.
The banks that recently signed with TransPoint are Compass BancShares Inc., Bank United Corp., First Tennessee National Corp., BankcorpSouth Inc., Firstar Corp., AmSouth Bank and Amarillo National Bank.
“Regional banks now realize Internet bill delivery and payment is a vital and viable service that will draw customers to their online banking Web sites,”
said Lewis Levin, president and CEO of TransPoint.
“We believe these strong regional banks will provide real value to their home banking customers by offering TransPoint e-bills.”
“We recognize that the time is now to begin educating our customers about e-bills, because once this method of paying bills is accepted by consumers, we feel its popularity will grow exponentially,”
said Susan Terry, senior vice president of First Tennessee, a national, diversified financial services institution with headquarters in Memphis.
“We chose to work with TransPoint because we agree with its business philosophy and also believe that it has, by far, the technological edge.”
Gary Messing, first vice president of Interactive Banking at Firstar Corp., a $38 billion Milwaukee-based bank holding company, said it decided to pilot with TransPoint because it realizes that e-bills will be an excellent way to maintain and enhance its relationship with its customers.
“We are certain our customers will benefit from receiving and paying their bills online as a tightly knit part of our home banking offerings. This technology gives us the flexibility to have our name front and center with our customers, which is exactly what we want.”
The seven newly signed banks join TransPoint’s existing roster of financial institutions, which includes Banc One Corp., Citibank, First Union Corp., PNC Bank Corp., Key Bank, Mellon Bank Corp. and Wachovia Corp.
In addition to its pilot program with financial institutions, TransPoint is also working with nearly 50 major billing companies, including household names like Consolidated Edison Inc., GTE Corp., BellSouth Corp., PECO Energy Co., J.C. Penney Company Inc., Mobil Oil Corp. and Xerox Corp. A complete list of TransPoint partners and a demonstration of the service can be found at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
TransPoint offers banks this e-bill service to its bill-paying customers so that customers aren’t diverted to a separate site or multiple sites to pay their bills. TransPoint works to build banks’ relationships with customers, both retail and commercial, by adding value to the banks’ Web sites.
About TransPoint
TransPoint is a joint venture of Microsoft and First Data, with Citibank as a minority equity investor. The company was formed in June 1997. In 1999, TransPoint will introduce its completely new, seamlessly integrated Internet bill delivery and payment (IBDP) service.
TransPoint is leading the emerging IBDP industry by building its service from the ground up instead of building new systems on top of old technology. The TransPoint service will allow consumers to access and pay their bills through the branded home banking sites of participating banks and other consumer service providers. TransPoint is based in Englewood, Colo. More information is available at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
TransPoint is an exclusive U.S. trademark of TransPoint LLC.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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