| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
20 August 2009 |
Bottomline Enables Corporate Clients to Cut Costs with Faster Payments
Bottomline Launches Near Real-time Faster Payments Solution for Direct Corporate Access to UK’s New Payment System
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – August 20, 2009 - Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) a leading provider of collaborative payment, invoice and document automation solutions, today announced that the company’s new Faster Payments solution has been used to make the industry’s first successful live, direct submission of a corporate Faster Payment into the Direct Corporate Access service.
Bottomline’s Faster Payments solution, which is now available, provides corporations with direct access to the new near real-time payments system in the UK. Through the use of this solution businesses can streamline their payments and dramatically reduce bank fees on same-day payments for up to £10,000, representing a fraction of the cost of sending payments by CHAPS, the UK’s RTGS payment system.
Faster Payments is a new payment instrument in the UK, launched in May 2008, and available initially via e-banking and phone banking to consumers and corporations.
Direct Corporate Access to Faster Payments has been recently launched as an enhancement of the Faster Payments system, allowing high volumes of Faster Payments to be managed in a similar way to Bacs, the UK’s ACH, which enables businesses to submit payment files directly to the ACH, instead of via banks.
“By integrating Faster Payments onto a single platform with our market-leading Bacs and cheque solutions, we are able to offer our customers maximum flexibility and efficiency in their payments solutions,” said Nigel Savory, Managing Director, Bottomline Technologies Europe. “Being the first solution provider to enable a corporate customer to make a payment into the new Direct Corporate Access service of the Faster Payments system is highly fitting for Bottomline, reflecting our leading position in the UK payments market.”
The launch of Bottomline’s Faster Payments solution coincides with the central Direct Corporate Access hub managed by Vocalink now being fully operational. Initially rolled out by Barclays, Direct Corporate Access allows corporations to send single or bulk payments of less than £10,000 per item directly into the Faster Payments Direct Corporate Access service for payment within 2 hours. The Direct Corporate Access version is a sister service to the UK Bacs corporate payment channel, used by 30,000 corporations to send payment data for clearing.
“Bottomline is the leading provider of Bacs payment solutions in the UK, with the highest market share,” said Savory. “The launch of Faster Payments using Direct Corporate Access offers corporate customers an exciting and cost-effective alternative to the 3-day clearing cycle associated with Bacs, the UK ACH service, and the RTGS CHAPS real-time service.”
Calculate the Environmental Savings
To help raise awareness of the environmental benefits achieved by transitioning from paper to electronic processing, Bottomline has posted a green savings calculator on its Web site at: www.bottomline.co.uk/gogreen.
About Bottomline Technologies
Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) provides collaborative payment, invoice and document automation solutions to corporations, financial institutions and banks around the world. The company’s solutions are used to streamline, automate and manage processes and transactions involving global payments, invoice approval, purchase-to-pay, collections, cash management and document process automation. Organizations trust these solutions to meet their needs for cost reduction, competitive differentiation and optimization of working capital. Headquartered in the United States, Bottomline also maintains offices in Europe and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.bottomline.com.
Media Contact
Billy Balfour
Bottomline Technologies
bbalfour@bottomline.com
603-501-5219
