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To: AugustWest who wrote (12542)	12/6/1999 6:57:00 AM
From: dweb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

Sun, Netscape join leading banks in bill-pay network By Reuters Special to CNET News.com December 5, 1999, 10:50 p.m. PT NEW YORK--Sun Microsystems and ally Netscape will tomorrow announce they are joining with three of the top ten U.S. banks to create a single means for customers to pay bills online. In the latest move to simplify customer bill-payment using the Internet, the companies said they plan to describe an online billing system that will allow hundreds of thousands of customers at the three banks to pay bills to the thousands of merchants prepared to handle payments. New York-based Chase Manhattan, First Union of Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Francisco-headquartered Wells Fargo will use the system. The three banks have formed a consortium known as Spectrum to adopt a common approach for Internet bill presentation and payment. Sun and Netscape will offer their iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator software for presenting and obtaining payment on bills to retail banks across the United States. The software is already in use by First Union and is the first software to support the Spectrum standard for Internet billing, the companies said. Billers stand to benefit because they can reach customers more than once a month, and take advantage of the added connections to create further links with their customers. Currently, retail banks offer their consumers the ability to pay only a few of their bills online. The Sun-Netscape software enables banks to send their corporate customers bills over the Web. Consumers can link to an online banking site to view a summary of bills from service providers such as telephone companies and utilities, and pay bills directly or request more details before settling a bill. Billers also can use Spectrum as a secure medium to send detailed information about a customer's account to the retail bank's site. This process is seamless to consumers, who simply log on to their financial banking site to receive information on their accounts and bills. The Sun-Netscape software represents one piece of a puzzle by creating a software system banks can use to sign up customers and merchants. Netscape's parent, America Online, also recently announced plans to develop the consumer market for such billing services by striking a deal with Intuit, the financial services software company, to offer a service for consumers to pay household bills online beginning in early 2000. Sun, a leading provider of Internet hardware and software maker, is based in Palo Alto, California. America Online, the No. 1 Internet services company, is headquartered in Dulles, Virginia. Story Copyright ¸ 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Free Newsletters All Newsletters