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eBill Easy Activation from Fiserv Wins Direct Marketing Association Innovation Award for Global Sustainability

October 20, 2014

  • The first of its kind, eBill Easy Activation applies "tryvertising" best practices from the retail world to electronic billing
  • eBill Easy Activation honored in new global sustainability category that recognizes sustainable products, services and initiatives that improve the global environment
  • The average American household can save up to six pounds of paper and 23 pounds of wood annually by switching to electronic bills

BROOKFIELD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that its eBill Easy Activation™ program was awarded a Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Innovation Award for Global Sustainability.

eBill Easy Activation is a "try before you buy" solution that enables customers to pilot electronic bills (e-bills) while still receiving paper bills, and is the first of its kind to apply "tryvertising" best practices from the retail word to the online billing and payment industry. By applying unique tryvertising marketing that encourages the switch to paperless bills, eBill Easy Activation helps lessen consumers' global footprint by reducing consumption and transportation of paper.

The DMA Innovation Awards 2014 (sponsored by Google) celebrate game-changing products and solutions that enable marketers to shift away from conventional marketing practices and enter, with confidence, a marketing space dominated by data-driven techniques and defined by rapid development, growth and change. The newest category from the DMA Innovation Awards is Global Sustainability, which recognizes solutions that are centered on innovative sustainable products, services and initiatives while improving outcomes for the global environment.

"eBill Easy Activation is a game-changing program that helps financial services and biller organizations encourage and celebrate environmentally-friendly practices and improve customer satisfaction, retention and payment timeliness, while also reaping the immediate and ongoing monthly cost savings of electronic billing," said Eric Leiserson, senior research analyst, Fiserv. "For consumers, receiving e-bills at their banking site makes the chore of bill payment more convenient and less time consuming. We are thrilled to receive this award that not only showcases the achievements of our clients' business goals, but also sheds light on the environmental benefits of electronic billing."

The tryvertising program offered by eBill Easy Activation from Fiserv offers consumers an opportunity to receive e-bills via their online banking service or biller web site for a 90 day introductory period, during which time they also continue to receive paper bills in the mail. After that period, the consumer can choose to turn off paper bills to fully take advantage of going paperless with e-bills. Since the program started in 2012, eBill Easy Activation has been rolled out to more than 3,208 financial institutions and 158 national and regional billers; a total of 712,727 accounts have successfully converted to paperless e-bills. This comes out to more than 239,000 pounds of paper and 893,000 pounds of wood saved annually.

Compared to online bill payment, which has become a mainstream service and an integral part of many people's financial lives, e-bills have been adopted by a much smaller fraction of consumers. A lack of awareness, resistance to change and consumers' intention to keep paper as reminders to pay bills have been the major stumbling blocks to adoption.

However, according to the 2014 Fiserv Billing Household Survey, e-bills, once adopted with the help of solutions like eBill Easy Activation, result in increased customer satisfaction and retention. According to the survey, 91 percent of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with e-bills, with convenience and time-savings being the top two reasons for satisfaction. Additionally, these consumers that use e-bills take on revenue generating products at a higher rate, have increased satisfaction with their financial institution or biller and are less likely to switch to competitors, according to the survey.

eBill Easy Activation is a standard feature of CheckFree® RXP®, available through the more than 3,800 financial institutions that offer the service. CheckFree RXP enables consumers to receive and pay bills online, as well as transfer funds and make expedited payments, at their financial institution website. Data-fed Fiserv e-bills are available for more than 500 common household bills such as utility, mobile phone and credit card bills are available via the service.

For more information on the tryvertising concept and details on eBill Easy Activation for online bill pay, please visit: https://www.fiserv.com/payments/biller/ebill-distribution.aspx.

For more information on how choosing e-bills can help reduce your global footprint, please visit: www.payitgreen.org.

The DMA Innovation Award for Global Sustainability will be presented to Fiserv during DMA 2014 on Sunday, October 26 in San Diego.

Additional Resources:

About Fiserv

This year, Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) celebrates 30 years of leadership in financial services technology. As one of FORTUNE® magazine's World's Most Admired Companies, Fiserv is helping clients worldwide achieve best-in-class results by driving innovation in payments, processing services, risk and compliance, customer and channel management, and business insights and optimization. For more information, visit www.fiserv.com.

FISV-G

Media Relations:
Julie Smith
Senior Manager, Public Relations
Fiserv, Inc.
412-577-3341
julie.smith@fiserv.com
or
Additional Contact:
Ann Cave
Director, Public Relations
Fiserv, Inc.
678-375-4039
ann.cave@fiserv.com

Source: Fiserv, Inc.

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