Many of the nation's leading financial institutions and otherlarge businesses like utilities and telecommunications serviceproviders have spent years trying to convince customers to migrateto an electronic-based system of bill presentment and payment.Electronic delivery of monthly bills and statements saves companiesprinting and postage costs, and those savings can be significant aspostage rates continue to rise. But while the volume of bills paidvia the Internet has grown steadily, the adoption rate of EBPPacross all industries remains only about 10% to 15%. Notsurprisingly, younger people who have never known a world withoutcomputers and the Internet are the most willing to acceptelectronic billing and payment systems, while seniors are generallythe most determined to hang on to traditional printed and mailedcommunications.
While many EBPP systems notify consumers via e-mail that theirmonthly statement is available, consumers must typically go to aWeb site to retrieve a copy of the document. They have to enter ausername and password and then drill through several pages tolocate the statement. Additionally, printing out a recognizablecopy on a home printer may be nearly impossible because thestatement is often displayed on the screen in an application thathome printers can't read. This inconvenience is regarded as one ofthe major obstacles to EBPP adoption.
Despite these complexities, NACHA, the Electronic PaymentsAssociation that oversees the Automated Clearing House Network,said an average household that receives 20 bills and financialstatements monthly can spend as much as $100 on postage plusanother $50 annually for checks, late charges, and the fuel used tomail them.
Highlighting environmental considerations may also be an effectiveroute to encourage the move from printed to electroniccorrespondence. According to PayItGreen.com, which is affiliatedwith NACHA, migrating to an electronic payment system can save 6.6pounds of paper per household annually, as well as 0.079 trees; itwould also avoid the use of 4.5 gallons of gas, the release of 63gallons of wastewater into the environment and the production of171 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
For many people-especially younger people-these benefits have beenattractive enough to convince them to pay at least one or two billsover the Internet every month.
Consumers can be moved step-by-step toward a complete electroniccommunications system. Start by first asking customers for theirpreferences-if they would like to begin receiving statements, billsand other correspondence by e-mail rather than through the mail, orboth while they try it out. However, an electronic statement shouldbe identical to the hard-copy document, and members should be ableto print it on their desktop printer. This alternative process is amixture of the electronic and traditional and might help customersaccept a wholly electronic system. They still have the convenienceof getting a statement delivered to them, and as they become morecomfortable with new media, they may be more willing to makepayments electronically. Regardless of the correspondence method,it is important for credit unions and mailers to note currentfederal regulations set to protect any communication involving arecipient's financial privacy and enforce delivery in a safe andsecure fashion.
Many consumers may not be comfortable making payments or receivingfinancial statements through multiple portals due to the growingfear of identity theft. To address this issue, NACHA is developinga program to allow financial institutions and billers to deliversummarized billing data through the ACH Network. Using this secureand reliable system, a credit union or biller may deliver statementsummaries to a member's preferred payment portal with the securityof the Federal Reserve and the Electronic Payments Network actingas operators.
No matter the specific details of an EBPP program, the technologyexists today to support it. Software applications are available tocreate one master document, such as a monthly statement, and thento produce and deliver identical versions of it through multiplechannels. And once customers gain hands-on experience with theseprocesses and are convinced of their reliability and security, theyare more likely to switch to electronic systems.
In launching this type of communication promotion, considerutilizing the “TransPromo” concept of combining regular monthlyinvoices and statements with marketing material-in this case,information about an e-mail delivery option now available and theadvantages it provides.
In these challenging economic times, consumers as well as creditunions are actively looking for ways to reduce expenses, andelectronic statement systems are an effective way to do this. Atthe same time, you're greening your organization, giving membersyet another reason to choose your credit union over thecompetition.

Harry Stephens is president/CEO, and founder of DATAMATX, aprinted and electronic billing solution provider. He can be reachedat (770) 936-5600 or [email protected]