BILL.L Regulatory News (BILL)

12 Mar 2007 13:00

BSG Clearing Solutions (BSG), the leading provider of clearing andsettlement solutions for telecom and online merchants, today announcedthe availability of its Advanced Payment Gateway -- a combination ofthree core integrated services: credit card payment processing,Bill2Phone(TM) alternative payments and integrated risk managementservices. The new Advanced Payment Gateway (APG(TM)) suite offersonline merchants all the means of revenue optimization by expandingconsumer reach through Bill2Phone(TM) and maximizing all electronicpayment approvals through advanced risk management services. Eachservice is available individually or in any combination of servicesthat meets the merchant's needs. £ The APG(TM) suite of services marks the company's transition fromtraditional third party billing to a leading provider of paymentservices for digital content providers -- One Provider, MultiplePayment Options. APG(TM) provides ecommerce and telco merchants with asingle point of integration across multiple credit card acquiringrelationships and over 1,400 network operators. £ Bill2Phone(TM) offers new demographic to increase sales: £ The newest service under the APG(TM) umbrella is Bill2Phone(TM), areal-time payment solution that offers online merchants and contentaggregators the ability to offer consumers an alternative paymentoption when buying digital content online -- bill to their existinglocal phone bill. As the industry's largest clearinghouse, BSG workeddirectly with the local exchange carriers (LECs) for 2 years on thetopic of digital content billing to enable the development of the mostefficient and secure phone bill offering possible. Combined with BSG'scredit card processing services, APG(TM) gives online merchants theindustry's most flexible and secure, revenue optimized billingoptions. £ Risk Management Services reduce fraud and maximizes positivepayments: £ A critical component of BSG's revenue optimization solutions isthe Risk Management Service that is fully integrated into APG(TM).BSG's Risk Management Service is a one-of-a-kind offering thatcombines leading edge technology, identity validation, and proprietarydata utilization that are all precisely tuned by a dedicated analyticsteam. This customizable risk management system incorporates a powerfulanti-fraud arsenal that includes: consumer validation, sophisticatedbusiness rules, rules weighting, velocity tracking, IP geo-location,and neural scoring. £ Credit Card Payment Processing with enhanced merchant features: £ While the trend of paying via a telephone bill will continue toincrease over the next several years, credit cards remain the mostused form of payment for online content. The integration of BSG'scredit card processing platform into the suite of APG(TM) services ledto an expansion of merchants' features and functionality thatincludes: Virtual Terminal, Recurring Payments, and expandedtransaction lifecycle management. BSG has also expanded its acquiringbank portfolio, further diversifying the companies acquiring solutionswhile providing merchants with more flexibility. £ Shared services increases merchant visibility into theirtransactions regardless of payment type: £ Beyond the multiple payment options with integrated riskmanagement services, APG(TM) also includes a suite of functionality toenhance payments reporting and provide visibility to multipletransaction types. These services include: £ -- WebTrack(TM) Reporting: Includes reports for full transaction life cycle management and settlement positions to properly manage the merchant's business £ -- Real-Time and Batch Interfaces: Common unified interfaces between all payment types in near real-time or batch. APIs are available for recurring billing or single transactions £ -- Virtual Terminal: Allows merchants to enter or modify a single transaction on behalf of the user £ -- Recurring Payments: Allows merchants to set up a recurring charge for a consumer with expansive payment options £ "Expanding from our established relationships with more than 1,400LECs and over 20 years of payment processing expertise, we'vedeveloped a unique Advanced Payment Gateway suite that offers thesafest, most comprehensive payment options available for onlinedigital content merchants today," said Greg Carter, President of BSGClearing Solutions North America, LLC. "Merchants now have a singlesource payment provider that packages electronic payments, riskservices, data mining, and industry expertise that will increaserevenue for our customers." £ About BSG Clearing Solutions £ BSG Clearing Solutions is a leading global provider of clearingand settlement, payment services, and financial risk managementsolutions for communications service providers. The company processesover 20 billion transactions annually for 750 of the world's largestcommunications companies throughout North America, Europe and Asia.With a ubiquitous, scalable platform and an extensive portfolio ofclearinghouse services for fixed-line, wireless, Wi-Fi, and broadbandnetworks, BSG monetizes network transactions by facilitating thefinancial exchange of its customers' services. BSG meets the needs oftoday's complex network interconnections and anticipates therequirements of converging technologies, allowing for rapid andreliable deployment. BSG Clearing Solutions is an operating subsidiaryof Billing Services Group Limited, which is publicly traded on theLondon Stock Exchange (AIM) under the ticker symbol BILL. For moreinformation, visit www.bsgclearing.com. £ All company or product names are trademarks and/or registeredtrademarks. Copyright Business Wire 2007