A Spectrum of Providers Push B2C Payments

Spectrum EBP, based in New York, has signed up an impressive roster of member banks for its electronic bill payment and presentment infrastructure. Jointly owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, Wachovia and Wells Fargo, the company recently added Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank as members.

Also, Citibank, Fleet, First Tennessee, Hibernia, M&I Bank, Provident Bank and Union Bank of California have signed letters of intent to join the network.

John Perry, chairman and CEO of Spectrum EBP, spoke about the latest company news with BS&T senior associate editor IVAN SCHNEIDER.

BS&T: What does it mean for Spectrum to get Citibank as a client?

PERRY: One of our key strategies was to bring on large financial institutions that have significant consumer bases as well as internal bill statements. These financial institutions are top ten banks and have strong brand awareness.

The Citibank relationship is at this point specifically with the corporate side of the bank. Citibank, or any of the financial institutions that signed a BSP biller service provider agreement with us, has the ability to flow bill statements into the switch through their BSP.

They're also getting large corporate customers, be it large telcos or utilities, that they could sponsor into the network.

BS&T: Do you plan to offer B2B payments?

PERRY: At this point we are 100% focused on the B2C market. So we're not marketing services from one biller to another.

BS&T: How do you expect Spectrum to coexist with other payments networks?

PERRY: It's natural over time for payment systems to interact. You see that in the different ATM switches and credit cards networks out there.

I'm sure that over time you'll see that the different EBPP networks will continue to interact, just from the standpoint that it's a very small market that has the potential to grow into a very large market.

John Perry, chairman and CEO of Spectrum EBP