Yodlee Opens Portal to Biller-Direct EBPP

Yodlee's new "BillDirect" service, currently in beta-test with one of its to-be-named larger clients, will provide a standardized interface for connecting to the "biller-direct" Web sites of almost 2,500 service providers--lenders, credit card and mortgage companies--as well as non-financial billers such as mobile phone, cable television and long-distance companies.

Consumers who make their online payments through billers' sites, rather than through banks' EBPP systems, essentially shift the burden of managing those payments-and the cost of doing so-to the biller. This shift serves both banks seeking to reduce the costs involved with offering EBPP, and Yodlee's Internet portal clients that do not have direct links into the financial network. Yodlee has 150 clients, including Internet portal operators AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo; and financial institutions including Bank of America, Citibank, Fidelity, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia.