LAS VEGAS–CheckFree is preparing to unveil a new release of its online banking platform.
The company was offering a demo of its “Consumer 5.0” solution during the BAI Retail Delivery Conference here, and among the financial institutions it was reporting have seen growth as a result of the online channel was Mission Federal Credit Union in San Diego.
The newest release follows CheckFree’s acquisition of Corillian in May 2007, which was part of an accelerated online channel optimization strategy by CheckFree to unify online banking, bill payment and presentment, personal money management, security and other services. In addition to the initial partnership with Mission Federal, CheckFree also partnered with the Colubmus, Ga.-based bank, Synovus.
According to CheckFree EVP/General Manager Alex Hart, both institutions saw “significant lift” in members/customers using online bill pay after better integrating that functionality into the home banking platform.
In the first month of the program, consumer enrollments in electronic billing and payment at Synovus and MFCU jumped an average of 75% over rates achieved before implementing the enhancements, CheckFree said. During a four-month period, online bill payment enrollments were up an average of 52% above prior levels at the two financial institutions. These results signal the significant impact that the integration of online banking and bill payment is expected to have on enrollment, adoption and user experience.
In a demo given to the Credit Union Journal, user screens are significantly easier to navigate, with much more information aggregated in one viewscreen.
“This test demonstrates that making even small changes to the user interface can have a major impact on user adoption,” said VP-Senior Online Solutions manager Shelby Hutcherson.
CheckFree noted that online banking customers/members visit their financial institutions’ sites an average of 11.2 times per month, according to the 2007 Consumer Bill Payment Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive.
Customers/members who use both online banking and bill payment services visit their financial institutions’ sites 13.4 times and those who use electronic bills to receive and pay their bills visit the online banking sites an average of 15.1 times, according to the same survey.
