CHECKFREE’S “SILENT” SERVICE
CheckFree was one of the first payment services to address the consumer’s need for a way to make multiple payments online through one interface, and for billers to present numerous bills to one consumer, either in summary form (as in the “thin” model), or in detail (as in the “thick” model).
CheckFree was primarily a consolidator and BSP, allowing trusted intermediaries (the CSPs) to manage the customer interaction. CheckFree was largely invisible to consumers, as CheckFree focused on back-office operations. By September 2000, the company signed multi-year contracts with 210 of the top billers (e.g., AT&T). CheckFree marketed itself as an A to Z provider, combining the functions of consolidator, BSP and sometimes even CSP.
Before 1990, consumers could pay bills electronically through CheckFree only by signing up with their bank for preauthorized (biller-initiated) debits. The clearing houses that sent the payments and settled consumers’ accounts at the Federal Reserve were not set up to allow consumers to initiate spontaneous payments.
CheckFree launched its Electronic Bill Payment service in 1990. Consumers could register billers with CheckFree or with a CSP. Each evening, CheckFree processed all payments received from consumers, verified that money existed to cover payments as they cleared through a bank, and then electronically notified the Federal Reserve Board to electronically transfer appropriate amounts from the consumer’s bank account. The biller received the funds, along with any remittance attachments, through the combined efforts of the CSP, a regional ACH, the Federal Reserve, and CheckFree.