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Securing online bill payments

Electronic transactions are on the rise in India, and one company that in the forefront of making e-commerce a reality is BillDesk. Consumers making tax, insurance premium, cellular and utility bill payments all benefit from its services and mutual fund premiums will soon be payable online. By Mohd Shariff P A

In today’s fast-paced world, one hates to stand in long queues wasting useful hours standing helplessly for everything from paying bills for electricity, water, mobile, taxes, insurance and more. Although there are some banks that offer online bill payment—the facility is limited to utility bills and it is never easy. We lack a common integrated platform for all bill payments.

Electronic transactions are on the rise in India, and BillDesk caters to various industries, which have incorporated this service into their business model. The company offers banks, billers and customers a comprehensive bill presentment, payment and management service. BillDesk aims to be a one-stop destination from where customers can make all their payments at one time and from one location. MN Srinivasu, Director, BillDesk says, “BillDesk operates as a neutral service bureau aggregating multiple banks, billing companies and other corporations onto a common standards-based platform for delivering electronic payments and collection services across multiple electronic channels.” Services designed for a customer’s convenience such as BillDesk support a universal electronic bill presentment and payment service that organizes bills online, is part of any leading bank’s initiative to gain the urban customer’s loyalty.

Electronic bill payments

The existence of a single destination for all kinds of bills simplifies the process of paying bills online. A single service that tracks your bills, informs you when they are due, eliminates the hassle of writing out checks and standing in queues and gives you the freedom and ability to pay with just one instruction to a bank is desirable.

The benefits on this platform are numerous. Customers can receive and pay all their bills from a single electronic location adding to their convenience and giving them greater control over payments. Srinivasu says, “Billers benefit from reduced processing expenses and improved customer service from online presentment and payment of bills while banks benefit by reducing transaction costs, better customer service and a continued basis of interacting with customers.” BillDesk is more than just an online bill payment and management service. In addition to online access anytime, anywhere it offers other value-added services such as bill tracking, click-pay and auto-pay, e-mail notifications, the facility to use your existing bank account to pay bills, an electronic checkbook, tools to analyze your payment history, convenient customer support and much more. Additionally it manages bills and expense records in one convenient location by harnessing the power of the Internet to receive, review and pay your bills. Flexibility and control to set up auto-payment and reminders that ensure that bills do not go unpaid are features that are not anywhere as convenient in the real world. You can see what has happened to your scheduled payments. It saves time and money. BillDesk helps eliminate your task of sorting and meticulously managing your bills and following up whether the payments have been made.

This technology platform has already extended its services to more than 30 institutions in India such as, SBI, Citibank and HDFC Bank and to leading companies such as LIC, BSNL, Hutch, Franklin Templeton and Reliance Infocomm, Airtel, Tata Teleservices, and Reliance Energy. Visa, the world’s leading payment brand also has an exclusive arrangement with BillDesk for online service that enables Visa cardholders to conveniently make bill payments using their Visa Cards. Srinivasu claims that this is the first such service introduced by Visa for cardholders in the Asia-Pacific region.

Good growth

At present the system is running through some private banks and some big banks, and it is yet to ramp up to cover rural India. Starting with the basic platform of electronic bill payment services, BillDesk has grown over the recent past to be the most comprehensive provider of an integrated range of electronic payment solutions and transaction processing services, including managed applications for the banking, insurance and financial services industries. Srinivasu says, “Today, BillDesk has strong management teams and infrastructure in the payment services industry, with over 175 employees and offices in 23 cities across the country.”

BillDesk had secured initial funding for its businesses from SIDBI Venture Capital and Bank of Baroda. In June 2006, the company secured strategic financing of $7.5 million from State Bank of India, India’s largest bank and Clearstone Ventures, a leading early stage venture capital fund with past success stories such as PayPal. These investments will help BillDesk accelerate its growth plans, increase the breadth and depth of its product offerings in the payment business and deploy a new delivery engine based on the latest technological and operational approaches. Srinivasu says, “According to statistics, online payments will increase to 1.8 million by 2007 from a mere 0.3 million in 2005-06. Among those who make use of the online payment facility, 73 percent use it to pay cell phone bills and 58 percent for electricity bills, followed by those paying insurance (42 percent) and Internet access bills (36 percent). 27 percent paid for their magazine subscription online.”