Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the leader in e-finance, and TransPoint, a leader in the online bill payment and presentment industry, today announced that the two companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent to bring more electronic bills to a greater number of consumers.
The teaming of these two industry leaders will offer consumers one of the most comprehensive and intuitive services through which consumers can view and pay their bills online. TransPoint's online billing and payment service will be available through Intuit's broad distribution channels including Quicken, Quicken.com (www.quicken.com/bills), AOL and Excite (www.excite.com). TransPoint is working with more than 50 major billers for electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), including major telecommunications, utility, credit card and other financial services and cable television companies. By the end of 2000, TransPoint expects to have more than 100 companies issuing electronic bills through its service.
As a result of the relationship, Intuit will be able to offer consumers easy, convenient and secure access to TransPoint's ever-increasing number of online billers. In return, TransPoint will gain distribution through several additional Web channels, enhancing its efforts to make e-bills available at multiple popular Internet locations.
"Enabling consumers to use the Web to pay many of their bills makes it even easier for these users to manage their day-to-day finances," said Mark Goines, senior vice president for Intuit's consumer division. "Through our proposed relationship with TransPoint, we will be able to offer consumers a single location where they can more easily manage their bills in the context of their larger financial lives."
"Our strategy is to provide consumers with the richest, most intuitive electronic bills and make them available at convenient, frequently traveled Internet destinations," said Lewis Levin, president and CEO of TransPoint. "Our relationship with Intuit will give consumers an extremely convenient e-bill service at several popular, multi-service Web sites. With this significant distribution boost, TransPoint continues to stimulate industry growth."
About Intuit's EBPP Service
Intuit's electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) service is the first Web-based online billing service to provide a central point of access for consumers to view, track and pay all their bills from the same site they use to manage the rest of their financial lives. For consumers, this means not having to access multiple billers' sites to manage bills. Through its relationships with TransPoint and other electronic-bill processing providers, Intuit will be able to offer consumers more electronic bills than any other EBPP service.
Intuit offers electronic bill presentment and bill payment services through Quicken and Quicken.com and will offer this service through other portals and financial institution sites pursuant to a license agreement between Intuit and a joint venture company in which Intuit is a participant.
About TransPoint's EBPP Service
The TransPoint"! online payment service is available at multiple locations on the Internet, including TransPoint's Web site (www.transpoint.com). Through its service, consumers can view and pay bills that arrive electronically through TransPoint, pay bills that arrive through the U.S. Postal Service, and pay nearly anyone else. With one fully integrated and convenient service, consumers can pay all of their bills with a few clicks of a mouse.
Commitment to Open Standards
Intuit and TransPoint have agreed to use OFX to interface their systems. As part of both companies' long-term commitment to open standards, Intuit and Microsoft Corp., one of TransPoint's parent companies, are actively engaged with the Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Working Group to support the creation and rollout of the IFX standard.
