MASTERCARD'S REMOTE PAYMENT OFFERING NETS CITIBANK AND PAYTRUST

Citibank and Paytrust are joining MasterCard's Remote Payment and Presentment Service (RPPS), enabling a growing number of Citibank consumers to access the benefits of electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) offerings.

This relationship furthers Citibank's efforts towards catalyzing the electronic bill payment space and extending the reach of Internet-based payment services.

Under this arrangement, Citibank's EBPP service, Citibank Bill Manager--which is provided through Paytrust--will have access to MasterCard's RPPS bill payment and presentment hub. With access to the hub, Citibank will be able to receive a greater number of bills electronically for presentation to its customers.

MasterCard RPPS provides participating financial institutions with a single connection to reach multiple Customer Service Providers (CSPs) and Biller Service Providers (BSPs) to receive and pay bills. In addition, RPPS provides high quality transaction processing and settlement of bills and payments between CSPs and BSPs typically in less than 24 hours.

Susan Ehrlich, director of consumer EBPP at Citibank, said in a statement, "By working with MasterCard RPPS and Paytrust, Citibank gains access to an open, state-of-the-art hub that allows us to avoid multiple connections with multiple protocols and limited use. The efficiencies derived from our association with MasterCard RPPS and Paytrust will enable us to offer our customers an improved level of bill presentment and payment services."

The emergence of the Internet has spurred a great deal of transactional volume and activity, opening up new opportunities for EBPP service providers to better serve consumers, said Edward G. McLaughlin of Paytrust. "The bill presentment model of MasterCard RPPS enables Paytrust to offer our customers, such as Citibank, accessibility to high quality bill presentment services--quickly and cost effectively."

The arrangement with Citibank and Paytrust complements MasterCard's efforts to provide RPPS customers with the ability to present consumers with electronic bills quickly and cost efficiently, said Cathleen Conforti, vice president at MasterCard's Remote Payment and Presentment Service. "Connectivity and easy access is essential to the growing acceptance of electronic bill payment and presentment services. The addition of Citibank and Paytrust to MasterCard RPPS will accelerate the availability of electronic bill payment and presentment services to a growing number of consumers."

The deal builds upon Citibank's efforts to maximize the reach of electronic bill payment and presentment to both its consumer and corporate customers. In May, Citibank announced its participation with Spectrum to provide corporate clients with enhanced electronic bill distribution to their customers.

Citibank will continue to explore other EBPP opportunities in order to provide its customers with the broadest reach of high quality electronic presentment and distribution of bills, officials said.