A Completely ACH-based Bill Pay System?

HERNDON, Va. – NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association will conduct a bill payment pilot program where companies will rely on the Automated Clearing House Network. Billing information will be delivered electronically using ACH. Sponsored by NACHA’s Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBP), NACHA says the Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) pilot could serve as a model for the universal electronic distribution of consumer bills to all 20,000 financial institutions that use the ACH Network. Under the EBIDS model, a billing company would originate a zero-dollar ACH transaction that contains a summary of a consumer’s billing information in an attached addenda record, and enter the transaction into the ACH Network through its corporate bank. The consumer’s financial institution would receive the transaction via the ACH Network, and present the billing information at its Internet banking Web site. The consumer would enter the Internet banking web site, using the financial institution’s existing logon procedure, and view the bill and authorize payment. The consumer’s financial institution would then send an ACH credit back to the biller’s bank, along with remittance information. NACHA says some benefits would be consumers having access to more of their bills at a single Web site where they already do their online banking; the privacy of their financial information would be improved since they authorize payments via their financial institutions rather than providing payment information at billers’ Web sites. Financial institutions would be able to offer enhanced Internet banking and bill payment services by increasing the number of electronic bills presented on their web sites. Billing companies would be able to present more bills electronically to their customers through a secure, standards-based network that is linked to thousands of financial institutions. They would receive non-revocable ACH credit payments, reducing their payments risk, and eliminating the burden of safeguarding consumers’ financial information. Organizations interested in participating in the pilot can obtain pilot should visit http://www.nacha.org/conferences/teleseminars.