Here it is -
Norwest to Test MSFDC Service - Russell Redman
Norwest Corp., Minneapolis, has joined several other big banks in plans to pilot the Internet bill payment and presentment service of MSFDC, the Denver-based joint venture of Microsoft and First Data Corp.
In the trial, Norwest is slated to test the service for its home banking customers as well as participate as a biller, with plans to offer bill presentment to its commercial accounts. The $88.5 billion bank reported that it also will join the MSFDC Advisory Board, which includes such banks as Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank.
At presstime, Norwest did not disclose a timetable for the MSFDC pilot, and bank officials declined to discuss it.
"We have been evaluating alternatives and have chosen MSFDC as one of the strategic companies we plan to work with in electronic commerce," Les Biller, Norwest's president and chief operating officer, said in a
statement.
In January, Columbus, Ohio-based Banc One Corp. said it would pilot the MSFDC system, which followed MSFDC pilot announcements the previous month by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, and KeyCorp, Cleveland.
Norwest, Banc One and KeyCorp are among the 18 bank owners of the Integrion Financial Network, Atlanta, which is building an electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) solution in concert with CheckFree Corp., Atlanta. Integrion and CheckFree hope to announce an EBPP solution this spring, said William M. Fenimore Jr., Integrion's chief executive officer and managing director.
The move by several Integrion banks to test MSFDC's service indicates that banks are keeping their options open in the nascent EBPP arena.
"As a member of the Banking Industry Technology Secretariat (BITS) advisory committee and as a co-owner of Integrion, we want to help integrate MSFDC services with these other initiatives," Webb Edwards, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Norwest, said in a statement.
Besides piloting MSFDC's system, Banc One also is considering an EBPP arrangement with Integrion and CheckFree, according to Bruce Luecke, general manager of interactive delivery systems at the bank. Such a
strategy, he explained, will help Banc One build up a critical mass of billers plus offer lower-cost service.
"We're interested in growing the bill presentment market, and there are going to be multiple players in that market," Luecke said. "And today, the two companies that are early starters are CheckFree and MSFDC."
NationsBank, Charlotte, N.C., is rolling out Web banking through Integrion with its NationsBank Online service but, at presstime, had not set plans for EBBP, said Chuck Hieronymi, senior vice president. Still, the bank - another Integrion owner - is not ruling out any options, he noted.
"We definitely will be adding bill payment and, more than likely, it will be an Integrion-enabled solution, given our other Integrion solutions," Hieronymi said. "But we're also trying to understand all the other alternatives and opportunities out there. That's under constant assessment." |
