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To: AE who wrote (7623)	9/17/1998 12:47:00 PM
From: Benny Baga	Respond to of 8545

Industry Briefs September 17, 1998 RETAIL DELIVERY NEWS -- Citibank Joins In as Equity Investor. New York-based Citibank [CCI] will become an equity investor in MSFDC, the joint venture between Microsoft Corp. [MSFT] and First Data Corp. [FDC]. Citibank will acquire a minority interest in the venture, with Microsoft and First Data retaining an equal majority stake in equal proportions. Effective immediately, the company's new name will be TransPoint and the Internet bill delivery and payment services will be called TransPoint E-Bills. Citibank also will be represented on the TransPoint board of directors. "The announcement, rumored for months, is very significant for ," says Ed Neumann, research director for the Washington-based consultancy Farragut Group. "Citibank is not just a big bank, but is the premier payment innovator regarding electronic commerce." Citibank will provide TransPoint with access to the "pay anyone" capability that Citibank developed as part of its Direct Access PC Banking. Other retail financial institutions will be able to use "pay anyone" as part of TransPoint's integrated service. This will enable consumers to pay any bill or make any payment regardless of whether the participating biller delivers the bill electronically. The deal could propel TransPoint's position in the bill payment arena, emerging as a "central switch" for bill settlement, similar to MasterCard and Visa's role in the credit card market, Neumann says. Citibank also will implement TransPoint's service, enabling its businesses and customers to present and pay bills electronically. TransPoint's Internet billing technology will be included in Citibank's e-Citi commerce solutions. The Citibank announcement "raises the bar for success significantly" for Integrion and Checkfree, Neumann says. Integrion meanwhile is making its own news in the bill payment arena. The online banking consortium owned by 17 financial institutions, IBM [IBM] and Visa, recently signed Michigan National Corp. up for its bill-payment service. Michigan National also plans to use the Interactive financial service platform for telephone bill payments. Michigan is the first bank to go live with Integrion.