Malauzai Software, a provider of mobile banking apps for community financial institutions, has launched Picture Pay, a standalone mobile payment solution that enables users to pay bills using the camera on their mobile device.
Picture Pay allows users to complete payments in three simple steps:
- Take a photo of the bill statement.
- Confirm the amount to be paid.
- Submit the payment to the financial institution.
Optical character recognition (OCR) technology reads the data from the statement and built-in analytics confirm biller information.
Users also have the option to rush payments for a fee, creating a strong value proposition and a revenue opportunity for financial institutions.
Banks and credit unions can leverage the solution as a tool to spike adoption rates of mobile banking and bill pay. Many potential online banking users don’t feel like entering in a bunch of information to get bill pay set up. Picture Pay eliminates all this dirty work. It is — quite literally — a snap.
Malauzai developed Picture Pay in conjunction with Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Allied Payment Network. The new functionality is in currently being piloted by $4.3 billion First Financial Bank in Texas.
“As we see more of our customers bypassing the online channel in favor of the mobile channel, mobile payment capabilities become increasingly important,” said Gary Webb, EVP of First Financial. “Our customers expect intuitive and quick transaction capabilities through our SmartApp mobile banking solution, and traditional bill pay can require upwards of ten steps to complete.”
“Our customers love the convenience of depositing checks through the mobile channel,” Webb added. “Now that convenience exists when paying bills.”
“A surprising number of people do not use online banking bill pay because of the time it takes to set up billers,” Robb Gaynor, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Malauzai. “With Picture Pay, it takes just seconds to send off a payment.”
“This process also saves the financial institution nearly 40% of the cost of a traditional internet banking bill payment,” Gaynor added. “Like most innovations in the mobile channel, it’s a win-win for the financial institution and its customers/members.”
“While 40-45% of financial institution customers use online banking, only 20% leverage online bill pay,” noted Ralph Marcuccilli, President/CEO of Allied Payment Network. “The ease of Picture Pay will encourage more people to take advantage of electronic payment services, creating greater customer loyalty for those institutions that offer it.”