News Release

For Immediate Release

CONSUMERS OFFERED CONVENIENCE AND SECURITY WITH FREE AUTOMATIC BILL PAYMENT

SAN FRANCISCO, August 4, 1999 -- Starting this month, millions of consumers around the Bay Area can take advantage of a special joint promotion by AT&T, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pacific Bell Telephone, the San Francisco Water Department, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Cities of Livermore, Mountain View, Napa, Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Sunnyvale, and Vacaville to have their bills paid directly from their checking accounts. Unlike many Internet bill payment options, Automatic Bill Payment is free to consumers.

This cooperative effort is the continuation of a project that began in 1997 with four Bay Area billers and has enrolled more than 160,000 customers. The campaign uses a common enrollment form that allows consumers to authorize automatic debiting by one or more of the participating billers.

Along with saving consumers time and money by eliminating check writing and bill mailing, Automatic Bill Payment also guarantees customers that they will be current with their bills, whether they are out of town, out of the country, or just busy. Another potential benefit is that a history of on-time payments helps maintain good credit standing and may be a way to improve a credit rating following a financial setback.

Automatic Bill Payment is also known as Direct Payment, or ACH (Automated Clearing House) debiting. Many people already use this secure and confidential payment mechanism to make mortgage, auto loan, and insurance payments. The ACH system is also used for Direct Deposit of payroll, as well as Social Security benefits. The four ACH operators that process Direct Payment and Direct Deposit transactions nationwide have completed their Y2K upgrades and testing, and report that their systems are now ready for the century rollover.

The Western Payments Alliance (WesPay) and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco are supporting the participating billers by organizing the cooperative effort to promote Automatic Bill Payment. WesPay is a non-profit trade association for financial institutions participating in the nationwide ACH payments system.

During the joint Automatic Bill Payment promotion, the billing organizations will distribute enrollment forms in their monthly or bi-monthly customer statements. More than 20 financial institutions serving the Bay Area will also distribute the enrollment form to their customers. Bill payers who sign up will receive advance notice of the date and amount of the automatic payment(s). They will see proof of payment on subsequent billing statements and on their checking account statements. If a customer wants to stop paying a bill automatically, all it takes is a phone call or a note to the billing organization.

East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) began offering ACH debiting when it joined the Automatic Bill Payment pilot project in 1997. According to Ann Riley, Information Systems Administrator at EBMUD, "After participating in the program for the last three years, we have 35,000 residential customers (12 percent) paying their water bill through Automatic Bill Payment. Our customers love the convenience and give us nothing but positive feedback."

Interested consumers should watch for inserts in future bills. Other billing organizations are expected to join the program in the future. Consumers who favor automatic bill paying should contact any company they pay regularly and ask if they can have their checking account automatically debited. Other organizations that bill their customers regularly may contact the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco at 415/974-2310 for information about the Automatic Bill Payment program. Additional information is also available on the Internet at www.wespay.org.