B2C Bill Payment Goes Mainstream

In the past two years bill payment has shown itself to be the most important aspect of online banking driving customer loyalty more than any other factor to e-banking. However, penetration remains low with only 8% of U.S. banking customers using the service.

In order for bill payment to become ubiquitous and maintain its current annual growth rate of about 40 percent, financial institutions will need to review how they market the service to their customers. In a new report entitled “B2C Bill Payments Goes Mainstream," Celent Communications provides an overview of bill payment in the US, quantifies current usage in a number of dimensions, gives insight into the various pricing models used by financial institutions, and discusses the vendors providing bill payment services as well as new initiatives on the horizon.

According to Alex Brutin, analyst and author of the report, banks need not necessarily be fearful of direct billers: "Direct Billers play an important role in educating consumers on bill payment and do not in themselves diminish the business case for financial institutions to position bill payment as the core of their online banking offering."

Bill payment has proven to be one of the main drivers of the adoption of online banking. Although bill payment is still in an early phase, evidence of its contribution to the bottom line is mounting. Most banks now report tangible results that testify to the service’s strategic value in driving customer profitability.