BURNABY, British Columbia — TIO Networks Corp. and Online Resources Corp., which provides online technology services to financial institutions, billers and creditors, have teamed with more than 500 financial institutions to offer expedited payments to approved TIO biller partners.
According to a news release, the service will launch this summer — offering bank customers the ability to make bill payments to TIO's wireless, utility and cable partners through Online Resources' banking and bill-payment portals.
"TIO is an important addition to Online Resources' Biller Endpoint Network, which directly links our proprietary financial-institution-payments gateway with thousands of billers for faster, more accurate electronic bill payments," said Robert R. Craig, Online Resources' executive vice president and general manager for e-commerce services. "Through this agreement, more consumers will be able to take advantage of our industry-leading expedited payments service for guaranteed same-day postings to TIO's select group of billing partners."
The Web-based payments channel builds on TIO's self-service billpay feature for kiosks and clerk-assisted systems and solidifies the company's position as a multichannel payment processor in the United States. TIO says the new deal with Online Resources introduces it to more users and substantially increases its distribution channel without additional cash-handling costs.
"This is an exciting agreement in TIO's evolution as a payment processor, to enter the e-banking business and have Online Resources help drive consumer adoption of TIO's products," said Hamed Shahbazi, TIO's chairman and chief executive. "Our expedited bill payment business is being pulled upstream by the growing demand from mainstream consumers for flexibility as to how and when they make their bill payments on time, avoiding late fees and preserving their credit rating."
TIO says it plans to seek new bill-payment products and network partners and build on its suite of financial services to add new distribution platforms and endpoints.
