This is great news for Spectrum and INTD
Metavante Joins Spectrum's Expanding Network of Financial Institutions, Financial Technology Providers, and Billers
ATLANTA & MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 11, 2001--
Agreement Fuels Spectrum Pipeline with 2,500 Banks, Expands
Pay Anyone Connection, and Opens Switch to Metavante Consumer
and Biller Relationships to Accelerate Adoption
Spectrum EBP, LLC, a bank-centric payment systems company that routes electronic bills and payments between billers and consumers, and Metavante Corporation, the technology subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (NYSE:MI), today announced Metavante will distribute and present bills from its Biller Service Provider (BSP) customers to Spectrum and has been certified to extract bills from the network and publish to its Consumer Service Provider (CSP) end-users.
All electronic bills generated by Metavante's more than 90 BSP clients will now be available to the nearly eight million online consumers served by Spectrum's founding financial institutions, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wachovia Corporation, and Wells Fargo, and the nation's top banks that are part of the electronic bill presentment and payment network. Through the Spectrum network, the Metavante CSP solution will ensure that 100 percent of end-user bills are presented electronically through its Total Bill Management service, currently used by 21 banks in North America including over 20 million Chase consumer credit card customers. Combined, Metavante BSP and CSP clients will populate the Spectrum network with electronic bills being used by more than 450,000 enrolled consumers.
"With its foothold in the financial services industry, Metavante is a powerful entrant into the Spectrum network as a significant player on the electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) landscape," said John Perry, Chairman and CEO of Spectrum. "The company not only increased its momentum with two strategic EBPP acquisitions this year, but will actively integrate billers and financial institutions into Spectrum's bank-centric environment where the greatest reach and impact can be achieved in end-user adoption."
"The Spectrum pipeline opens access to a high concentration of bills we can now funnel to end-users while in turn, we feed the switch with electronic bills from our billers," said Nancy Langer, president and general manager of Metavante Electronic Presentment & Payment. "As our 400 CSF(TM) document composition customers begin to migrate to electronic presentment, we have the potential to add more than one billion bills and statements (monthly) into the Spectrum switch. Formalizing our long standing alliance with Spectrum that began with our Pay Anyone relationship last year, Metavante establishes an important connection for all our billers and financial institutions."
According to a recent report by TowerGroup, a leading research and advisory firm focused on technology in the financial services industry, the number of financial services institutions (FSIs) in the EBPP market is growing, with larger institutions expected to invest an annual average of 20-25 percent of total IT expenditures for electronic billing initiatives and smaller FSIs actively looking at outsourcing options. The focus on the development of optimal delivery channels, relationships, and strategies will position FSIs as a critical force in EBPP adoption and utilization in the coming decade.
"As FSIs help to accelerate the EBPP market, switch services will play a significant role in enabling the connectivity between multiple participants in EBPP and promote ubiquity of delivery between billers and their customers," said Beth Robertson, senior analyst of TowerGroup. "Among vendors, Metavante has the greatest number of bank-centric relationships and is a significant addition and natural fit for Spectrum as the industry prepares for higher utilization of switch services and increased adoption."
Metavante Electronic Presentment and Payment offers a comprehensive, fully scalable, end-to-end solution that allows companies to electronically prepare bills and statements, and enables their customers to receive them and make payments on the Internet. The Metavante EPP solution provides billers with the industry's leading technology to automate and streamline bill delivery, payment, and customer care processes, and with market-leading document composition software, CSF. It provides consumers with a bill management service that allows them to view, pay, manage and automate all of their bills
- paper or electronic - online. Metavante EPP also delivers a powerful "pay anyone" electronic bill payment engine for businesses and consumers.
Including six of the top 10 U.S. banks, a total of 24 financial institutions belong to the Spectrum network or have signed letters of intent to participate in the network. As a payment systems company, Spectrum routes online payments, presentments, invoices, statements and other related information. With the industry's only standards-based OFX/IFX platform, the Spectrum open network enables participants to benefit from low-cost switch fees, a good funds model and it's unique same-day settlement process. Spectrum's expansive reach includes nearly eight million online banking customers through its founding banks and 282 large-industry billers through strategic alliances with 10 technology partners.
About Metavante
With more than 3,500 clients, including the largest 20 banks in the United States, Metavante Corporation is a leading financial services enabler, delivering virtually all of the technology that an organization needs to offer financial services. Metavante offers financial technology solutions that drive customer relationship management, electronic banking, electronic funds transfer and card solutions, electronic presentment and payment, financial technology services, private label banking, and wealth management. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Metavante is wholly owned by Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (NYSE: MI). For more information, see www.metavante.com.
About Spectrum
Spectrum, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is an independent payment systems company fully owned by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wachovia Corporation (FTU) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC). Formed to facilitate the exchange of electronic bills and payments, Spectrum's mission is to provide a secure, open and interoperable infrastructure to electronically link consumer and biller service providers. Additionally, Spectrum seeks to provide value to its participants by providing superior service and reducing overall bill presentment and payment costs. Spectrum does not host any bills directly, nor does it retain any bill details. Including the three founders, 24 financial institutions currently belong to the Spectrum network or have signed letters of intent to participate in the network. More information on Spectrum can be found at www.SpectrumEBP.com.
CONTACT:
Spectrum
Julie Counterman, 678/332-5263
jcounterman@spectrumebp.com
or
Thomson Financial/Carson
Peggy Sung, 212/510-9307 (Media Inquiries)
peggy.sung@tfn.com
or
Metavante
Chip Swearngan, 414/357-3688
chip.swearngan@metavante.com
KEYWORD: GEORGIA WISCONSIN
BW2156 DEC 11,2001
5:08 PACIFIC
8:08 EASTERN |
