01 April 2005 Features

 

OneVu case study

Bill payment is not possible through account aggregation sites just yet but a joint venture by e-commerce company Checkfree and transaction processor Voca (formerly BACS) is aiming to make it possible a different way. OneVu is the UK’s first consolidated electronic bill presentment and payment service hoping to let customers see and pay all of their bills through their online bank.

Martin Kearsley who is leading the OneVu project at Voca says: “This is consolidation as opposed to aggregation. We’re supportive of the aggregation model as it stands but as we move to two-factor authentication aggregation will be under pressure and that’s where consolidation comes in. It takes consumers who’ve come in through their bank straight to their billers.”

OneVu was launched in May 2004 in collaboration with HSBC and Lloyds TSB who are due to go live on the service in the second quarter of this year.

Sutton and East Surrey Water is the first biller to sign up to the service. The service works by getting consumers to link billers to their online banking site through OneVu’s transaction processing engine. No passwords are given to Voca and instead consumers answer specific questions (chosen by the biller) which are then verified by the biller, such as the amount of their last bill. Once the customer has added a biller all they have to do is go to their online bank and click on the relevant button to pay the bill. It will work with bills and statements such as insurance notices.

“It’s being driven by consumers,” says Kearsley. “They want to do more and banks are providing them with new and innovative services. We’re in talks with a number of other banks and billers and I would hope to exit 2005 with four banks and nine or 10 billers. Eventually most people will be able to get most bills online.”