Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that the company was recognized as the top online and mobile bill payment processor in a recent report by Aite Group, a financial services research firm. Fiserv provides comprehensive electronic billing and payment solutions that enable thousands of financial institutions and hundreds of businesses to provide customers the convenience of receiving and paying household bills online or via mobile devices.
In the report, Consolidator Bill Payments: A Vendor Update, Aite Group examines the market share and processing activity of leading consolidator bill payment processors in the United States between October 2012 and January 2013. “Consolidator” refers to the bill payment method in which consumers pay a variety of bills via their banks' websites, as opposed to going directly to a biller’s site. According to Aite Group, consolidator bill payments have grown over the course of the last year, representing nearly 16 percent of total U.S. consumer bill payments in 2012. Fiserv is the clear leader in full-service consolidator bill payments, processing more than 1.5 billion transactions in 2012, which represents a 70 percent relative market share.
While the Aite Group report is focused on bill payment processing, it also notes a trend toward banks using the same provider for bill payment processing and the bill payment user interface (UI), the screen through which a consumer initiates a payment.
“Over the past few years, banks have come to rely on the UIs offered by bill payment vendors for several reasons, including the richer functionalities, such as e-bills, offered by those vendors,” said Gwenn Bézard, research director, Aite Group. “Fiserv has clearly remained focused on its strategy to control both UI and processing, with 99 percent of its customers using Fiserv for both.”
The Aite Group report also predicts growth in mobile payments and e-bill distribution, in which bills are delivered electronically to a bank’s website, again recognizing Fiserv’s significant market share.
The Aite Group report concludes that the percentage of bill payments made via bank sites is positioned to increase over the next several years.
“According to the 2012 Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey, less than half of online banking users also pay bills through their bank or credit union website,” said Tom Allanson, president, Electronic Payments, Fiserv. “There is still significant room to increase consolidated bill payments as existing users expand their use of the service and new users, including younger consumers who are just taking on bill payment responsibilities, adopt the service. We continue our commitment to deliver highly integrated, user-friendly payment solutions, while supporting financial institutions with marketing services to further drive user adoption and usage.”