Electronic Payments Maximizer Offers Proven Method for Lifting Electronic Rates

New Tool Helps Keep Paper Payments to a Minimum

How do we get rid of this paper?

It’s a question that online banking and bill-payment services, lockbox service providers, and billers ask themselves every time an online bill payment that could and should go electronically gets “dropped to paper” and is processed as a “check only” or a “check-and-list.”

It’s also a question that MasterCard RPPS experts have devoted themselves to answering, and with the general rollout of the MasterCard RPPS Electronic Payments Maximizer Service in February, our customers now have an automated tool that will help them raise electronic payment rates and reduce the paper clogging their payment streams.

“The Electronic Payments Maximizer helps bill-payment originators identify electronic-capable billers and keep the payments electronic, as consumers expect,” says Mary Kelly, product leader, MasterCard RPPS. “It’s a proactive network solution that uncovers true electronic billers that were being paid by paper check.

“Payments that could go electronically get dropped to paper for a variety of reasons,” she notes. “Let’s say, for example, that a consumer has entered a name that is listed on the MasterCard RPPS Online Biller Directory as an acceptable secondary name for a particular biller—like ‘Con Ed.’ But if the bill-pay originator searches the directory by primary biller names only—‘Con Edison’—the online bill-pay originator will miss the match. The Maximizer does an exhaustive, high-speed search automatically, replacing the manual process with an easy, cost-effective alternative that gets the job done.”

This new feature, along with our Account Conversion Technology and Electronic Exceptions Service, provides automated network solutions to replace manual, resource-draining processes.

Bottom-line impact

In several 2007 pilots, the Maximizer increased participants’ electronic rate by anywhere from 3% to 70%, says Kelly.

“With electronic payments costing a few pennies each and paper payments ranging from 20 to 45 cents each, even a small lift in the electronic rate can have a big impact on the bottom line,” she says.

Indeed, at the 2007 MasterCard RPPS Customer Conference and Industry Symposium, one pilot participant, iPay’s Andy Sosnowski, demonstrated that for an institution sending out 1 million checks a month, moving just 1.5% of those to electronic payments can save $54,000 annually.

Automated solution

To leverage the Maximizer, bill-pay originators simply submit their check file in the designated format. Upon receipt of the file, MasterCard RPPS processes it through the automated tool.

“The Maximizer quickly returns to the bill-pay originator a match report that shows potential matches for electronic billers,” says Kelly.

“Our customers can be certain that the Electronic Payments Maximizer will help them find electronic-capable billers they may be missing, optimize their electronic payment volume, and reduce paper,” she says.

For more information

For more information on the Electronic Payments Maximizer, please contact MasterCard RPPS Account Support at 800-207-7605 or rpps_helpdesk@mastercard.com.