Headlines:
Yodlee Adds Verizon to BillDirect System Clearing House Absorbs Boston Operation LaSalle Installs Software from IntraNet
Yodlee Adds Verizon to BillDirect System
The Redwood City, Calif., banking technology vendor Yodlee Inc. has added Verizon Communications Inc. to its bill payment consolidation system, BillDirect.
The system is similar to the aggregated pay-anyone systems common on many banks' Web sites. The main difference is that its software connects customers to the billers' Web sites, where they can make payments, look at account details, and use payment options that billers offer but banks may not, such as paying a monthly bill with a credit card.
America Online Inc., LowerMyBills.com Inc., and Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services Inc. are offering versions of BillDirect. Yodlee is also marketing versions to banks and companies in other industries.
Verizon customers who want to pay their phone bill with BillDirect would have to be enrolled with one of those companies, Yodlee said Tuesday. AOL and Discover allow only their own customers to use the system, but LowerMyBills.com lets anyone use it.
Yodlee can present data from more than 2,700 billers. It introduced BillDirect in August 2003, and AOL became its first live customer in March 2004. Discover began offering its version in June of this year under the Auto Bill Pay brand.
Clearing House Absorbs Boston Operation
Clearing House Payments Co. LLC has taken over the operations of the Boston Clearing House.
The Clearing House, of New York, had been providing settlement services since the late 1990s for the seven banking companies that used the Boston Clearing House: State Street Bank and Trust Co., Bank of America Corp., Mellon Trust of New England, Sovereign Bancorp., Eastern Bank Corp., Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's Citizens Bank, and TD Banknorth.
Under the agreement announced Tuesday, The Clearing House will continue to do so as part of its own national check-clearing system, and the Boston organization will disappear. No money is changing hands.
The Boston organization's members clear about 13 million checks worth about $850 million each month through The Clearing House.
"This is part of our strategy to consolidate check clearing," George F. Thomas, an executive vice president at The Clearing House, said in an interview Monday.
In the past two years it has absorbed the Chicago Clearing House, Connecticut Clearing House Corp., Northeast Regional Check Exchange-Long Island, Liberty Clearing House Association, and Upstate New York Clearing House. It has also acquired the clearing operations of the Western Payments Alliance.
The Clearing House has organized these operations under the National Check Exchange, which it says offers coast-to-coast check-clearing.
However, Angela Carone, the vice president for check services at The Clearing House, said there are still a few holes in its coverage, notably the South and the Southeast.
Though Mr. Thomas said it is not looking for more acquisitions, he did not rule out the possibility of similar deals.
The Federal Reserve banks have been shutting many check-processing centers, and The Clearing House sees opportunities in the affected regions, he said. "As the Fed makes it more difficult for banks to clear checks, we can step in to accommodate those banks."
LaSalle Installs Software from IntraNet
ABN Amro Holding NV's LaSalle Bank Corp. of Chicago has begun using wire transfer software from the IntraNet Worldwide Inc., a unit of Transaction Systems Architects Inc. of Omaha.
LaSalle is using the software, IntraNet iMTS, for domestic and international wires, IntraNet said Tuesday.
Executives at LaSalle said in 2003 that they planned to use IntraNet's software to upgrade its wire transfer system as part of an effort to centralize some functions that were being handled by disparate processing systems. IntraNet said Tuesday that it worked with LaSalle to customize the software to meet the bank's needs. Among other things, the companies added reporting processes and customized messaging functions.
Mary Miles-Carlson, the group senior vice president of wire operations at LaSalle, said in IntraNet's press release that the software has let the bank to improve its straight-through processing rates, in which the transactions are processed and settled without manual intervention.
"We are very encouraged by the initial rollout of the iMTS application," she said.
LaSalle did not return a phone call seeking comment.
