This news was on Yahoo.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Picture: Yahoo! Finance>Home - Yahoo! - Help
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Picture: PR Newswire>
<Picture: Share Our Strength's Children's Hour, Click here!>
[ Business | US Market | By Industry | IPO | AP | S&P | International | PRNews | BizWire | CCN ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related QuotesCKFR
0
+0
delayed 20 mins - disclaimer
Tuesday July 13, 6:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: CheckFree Corporation
CheckFree and New Zealand Post Launch Electronic Billing and Payment Solution
ATLANTA, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR - news), in partnership with New Zealand Post, has launched a program that will enable New Zealanders to receive, view and pay their bills electronically through the Internet. This program is the first electronic billing and payment offering CheckFree has provided outside the United States. The system will be in final beta testing during the next three months and will go into full commercial launch in October of 1999.
Also involved with the program is the Bank of New Zealand, the largest bank in the country, which provides the payment mechanism and allows customers to access the system from its home banking system on the Internet. The initial bills being presented and paid on the Internet are from Saturn Communications and Bank of New Zealand Credit Cards. Consumers will be able to make payments directly from their Bank of New Zealand bank accounts.
Bank of New Zealand Managing Director Mike Pratt said the service would streamline the bank's credit card billing services. ''We are always looking to the future and to more convenient ways in which customers can do business with us. The benefit of electronic billing is that it allows us to extend the range of services we offer and provides customers with an easy and flexible way to pay bills.''
Elmar Toime, New Zealand Post Chief Executive, stated that initial research on the service indicated interest and demand for electronic billing and payment services, even from customers who were not currently connected to the Internet. According to Toime, of those polled, ''some 33 percent with access to a PC and 31 percent of those without access to a PC indicated they would strongly consider using the service.'' Mr. Toime said that because the service would eventually include most banks and most common household bills, it will provide a single, secure Internet site where they can decide when and how much to pay for each bill.
Toime described the service as a ''natural extension of the range of bill production, delivery and payment services New Zealand Post already provides.'' In conjunction with its subsidiary Datamail, New Zealand Post produces in excess of 80 million bills annually, and its shops and agencies already manage 13 million consumer bill payments annually.
CheckFree has served as consultant on the project from the onset. CheckFree and New Zealand Post specifically designed the billing and payment system for the New Zealand market though it is modeled after CheckFree's existing U.S. operations. Doug Williams, senior vice president of International Business Development for CheckFree, said, ''New Zealand Post provided CheckFree with an in-country partner that had solid experience in bill production and payment, as well as the market presence to bring in other key players like Bank of New Zealand and make the value chain for the billers and consumers extremely effective. By working with this group of partners, CheckFree has gained very valuable knowledge on how to effectively export its business model outside the United States. This project demonstrates how quickly and efficiently a billing and payment business can be built and delivered if you understand who the right partners are and bring them into the endeavor early.''
Williams continued, ''We expect that this will become the delivery system of choice for all major billers and financial institutions in New Zealand, as well as the preferred method of receiving and paying bills for consumers across the country.''
About New Zealand Post
New Zealand Post (www.nzpost.co.nz) is internationally recognized as providing one of the most efficient and inexpensive postal services in the world. While it continues the tradition of carrying and delivering of letters and parcels, New Zealand Post has responded to customers' growing communications needs through innovation in the residential, business and international markets. Today, the company provides communications solutions for a wide range of people and businesses, using its people and technology to achieve long-term growth.
New Zealand Post's core business activities are message communication in letters, distributing courier and parcel items and financial transactions. It also provides distribution logistics, stamp and telegram services as well as data processing and mail production. The company is the fifth largest employer in New Zealand, with nearly 9500 full-time and part-time employees and the 29th largest company in the country, as measured by annual turnover.
About CheckFree
Founded in 1981, CheckFree (www.checkfree.com), the operating subsidiary of CheckFree Holdings Corp., is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services, software and related products. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable nearly three million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or electronically through a variety of bill aggregation points, including banks, brokerage firms, portals and interactive content sites on the Internet, and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree's range of services and products are focused on enabling customers to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial transactions and conduct secure Internet transactions. After more than a year of beta testing, CheckFree launched the nation's first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution, CheckFree E-Bill, in March of 1997. Today, the Company has multi-year contracts with more than 50 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through the CheckFree distribution network.
Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1998, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 1999, Form 8-K filed May 25, 1999 and the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 (No. 333-79695) filed June 1, 1999, as amended June 15, 1999. One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward- looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: CheckFree Corporation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Quotes and News:Checkfree Holdings Corp (Nasdaq:CKFR - news)Related News Categories: internet
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1999 PRNewswire. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PRNewswire content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRNewswire. PRNewswire shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information.
Questions or Comments?
|
