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To: TLindt who wrote (16661)	10/19/2000 6:28:17 AM
From: noiserider	Respond to of 20297

Replay of the Citi YourAccounts deal from americanbanker.com Noise ********************** Citibank Adds Business-to-Consumer EBPP** Thursday, October 19, 2000 By Andrew Roth Citigroup Inc. has added another dimension to its electronic bill payment and presentment operation. Its Citibank unit's e-Business division last week began offering its U.S. corporate customers the ability to send consumer billing statements and receive payment electronically. It started e-Billing B-to-C last Thursday, the same day it introduced Citibank Bill Manager, which gives its credit card customers access to all their monthly bills at Citi's Account Online site. It is working with Eldorado Hills, Calif.-based YourAccounts.com in offering the business-to-consumer service and with Paytrust of Lawrenceville, N.J., on the credit card service. As these initiatives indicate, Citi wants to partner with software specialists in online billing but at the same time keep its distance from high-profile providers such as CheckFree Corp., the leading e-billing supplier. Only a handful of institutions are delivering electronic bills, and most of them work with CheckFree. In e-Billing B-to-C, Citibank translates information from a biller's mainframe computer and routes it to consumer-access points: a biller's branded Web site, a portal, or a bill-consolidation site. Consumers can make automated clearing house or credit card payments. "It's an agnostic platform that can reach consumers where and how they want to pay their bills," said Gary Churgin, Citibank e-Business' director of electronic bill presentment and payment. "We are saying to our corporate clients, 'Give us your billing information and we'll do what's necessary, technologically speaking - either going through your Web site directly or to a consolidator.' " Citibank had been in a "holding pattern" for the past six months as it decided whether it would develop its own electronic billing system or work with a vendor, Mr. Churgin said. "We had looked to build our own platform and were in the beginning phase in the spring, but we did a business analysis and recognized that by using a solution already out there we could bring it to market more quickly and more completely," Mr. Churgin said. Citibank is competing mostly against its corporate clients' desires to develop their own platforms, rather than against other providers of electronic billing, Mr. Churgin said. At the same time, he said, it wants corporations to whet demand by offering extra services. "Different things will entice consumers in different industries," Mr. Churgin said. "We have to rely on their experience and knowledge of their customer base for putting together an adoption model having a business impact." He added that billers might offer their customers incentives including rebates, account histories, and the ability to sort and analyze billing data. Billers, meanwhile, will be offered target-marketing features. One-to-one marketing through electronic billing has been known to yield 7% response rates, versus an average of 2% for paper bills, Mr. Churgin said. "It's an intimate relationship with the customer that billers don't have in the paper world."

To: TLindt who wrote (16661)	10/19/2000 8:18:33 AM
From: doug_day	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20297

Hi Tom--- OK, a bit of a discussion, but humbly when arguing with the master and founder..... As I understand it, MOBI supports a web based repository for e-bills, for example. Right?? I am a two year user of on line bill pay, but skeptic of e-bill presentment. 1) I find having a paper copy very handy, and even necessary, for most bills. 2) E-bill saves money for the biller, not the consumer, so SHOW ME THE MONEY. Until then I do not care... 3) It will be a long time before 4 e-bills are possible for me. Outa my 20 or so bills, only one is now e-bill capable. One e-bill?? Who cares? 4) If I do e-bill, I will want to view the entire bill (and would endure any marketing info, as I do now with paper bills), not just an overview. 5) I would want to download and store the complete e-bill in my computer, backed up, not in some remote site that could go away. Where would that put MOBI? But all IMVHO....comments? Wild ride in the market yesterday, if the futures hold, lookin' better today...