Automated clearing house BankservAfrica and ebpSource, a global electronic bill presentment and payment solution provider, are rolling out the country's first bank-based electronic billing and payment service.
The new service is being introduced to consumers through connected online banks.
BankservAfrica
manages the electronic bill presentment and payment service on behalf
of South Africa's commercial banks, with support and domain expertise
from ebpSource.
Nedbank and a number of large billers are already live on the service.
Billing companies benefit too
By
consolidating a range of consumer bills in one place, the
BankservAfrica offering enables banks to provide their retail customers
with a new way to manage, view and pay their bills from the security and
convenience of their trusted online bank, as well as other connected
channels.
Martin Grunewald, CEO of BankservAfrica's business process outsourcing unit, said the eBilling service also offers benefits to billing companies ranging from the government and telecoms to financial services, utilities and retail, plus a range of other business sectors signing up to deliver their bills through the service.
"Consolidated billing and payment improves customer service and removes the need to print and deliver paper bills. It also enables billers to take advantage of the banks' ability to provide a secure end-to-end process for bill viewing to payment, clearing and settlement and even online document storage," said Grunewald.
Corporates
Two of the largest municipalities in South Africa have already connected to the service. They will use it to deliver local taxes and charges, with the imminent launch of a range of retail billers via Nedbank.
Initially BankservAfrica is making the service available to consumers via the participating banks, with plans to address the needs of corporates and business users at a later stage.