Market Trends

Electronic Bill Presentation and Payment (EBPP) is the process that enables bills to be created, delivered, and paid electronically over the Internet. This service has applications for many industries, from financial service providers to telecommunications companies and utilities.

The following factors are just an example of many that CommSecure believes will influence the future of the growing EBPP Market in Australia:

1. Internet Adoption in Australia - the ability for users to have access to an EBPP service
2. Bill Volumes - the volume of bills/documents that are produced
3. Payment Volumes - the broader payments market beyond regular bill payment
4. BPAY Trends - references a similar service offering for EBPP

Whichever way you look at it, the EBPP market is a fast growing one!

1. Internet Adoption in Australia

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2004-05, 67% of Australian households have access to a computer at home and 56% had home Internet access. Looking at the demographics breakdown by age group, a study published by DCITA also shows that in 2002 an estimated 72% of the Australian population 16 years and over had Internet access.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Source: Dept of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

While Internet adoption in Australia is high, what is more staggering is the 78% growth in broadband Internet services from 1.4 million deployments in March 2005 to 3.2 million in March 2006. This trend is expected to continue with new services such as wireless broadband becoming more widespread. This is encouraging because broadband connectivity will provide a better user experience of the EBPP service.

Snapshot of Broadband Deployment 2002-2006

	Cable	Satellite	ADSL	Other DSL	Other	Total
31-Mar-02	124,200	7,400	64,200*	3,900*	100	199,800
30-Jun-02	140,900	9,000	97,200*	10,900*	100	258,100
30-Sep-02	158,200	10,700	120,600*	22,200*	500	312,200
31-Dec-02	173,200	12,200	139,900*	38,000*	200	363,500
31-Mar-03	191,900	12,600	160,600*	58,200*	300	423,600
30-Jun-03	215,400	13,000	193,500*	94,600*	300	516,800
30-Sep-03	236,300	13,200	216,600*	136,000*	300	352,600
31-Dec-03	251,200	13,300	241,400*	182,400*	300	423,800
31-Mar-04	283,300	13,200	275,100*	243,600*	300	518,700
30-Jun-04	324,400	12,900	340,800*	347,100*	300	1,025,500
30-Sep-04	375,900	12,700	835,100*	54,300*	300	1,279,100
30-Dec-04	404,300	13,500	1,011,200	75,600	300	1,504,900
31-Mar-05	438,700	14,400	1,235,200	88,200	300	1,776,800
30-Jun-05	473,000	17,800	1,499,600	112,200	300	2,102,800
30-Sep-05	510,600	22,000	1,786,100	124,800	40,800	2,484,300
31-Dec-05	533,600	23,300	2,013,300	161,500	53,300	2,785,000
31-Mar-06	563,200	23,000	2,295,200^	208,600	71,600	3,161,600

Source: Australian Competition & Consumer Commission

2. Bill Volumes

In December 2004 Australia Post introduced the “Mail Type” question on PreSort, Clean, Charity and Impact Mail lodgement documents to enable the measurement of Promotional and Transactional mail.

Transactional mail is defined to be any personally addressed mail that primarily relates to the completion of a financial transaction. A mailing is classified as “Transactional” where the MAIN purpose is to send an invoice, statement or receipt, or necessary for compliance standards. This gives us an idea of the current volume of bills sent by mail.

As at May 2006, Australia Post handles over 199 million pre-sort mail documents per month, of which over 120 million or 60% are classified as transactional mail.

Source: Australia Post

3. Payment Volumes

According to recent findings from DCITA, over 80% of payments made per capita are electronic payments. Relative to the rest of world, Australia has an average usage of electronic transactions.

Source: DCITA

From the chart below, approximately 190 non-cash payments (excluding cash and cheques) were made per capita in 2005. With approximately 20 million people, this translates to 3.8 billion non-cash payment transactions per annum.

Source: Reserve Bank of Australia

4. BPAY Trends

Looking at the trends for BPAY and BPAY View can provide us some interesting empirical data on what to expect.

• Australians now pay approximately 14 million bills with BPAY through financial institutions, worth over $9 billion, every month.
• Internet banking represents over 73% of all BPAY payments.
• BPAY payments online and over the phone has grown to reach the same level as traditional over-the-counter bill payments at Australia Post
• More than 13,000 billers accept BPAY payments.
• More than seven million Australians are registered internet and phone banking customers - over five million of these are internet bankers.
• Via the new BPAY View service over 300,000 Australians are now receiving their bills online through their internet banking site.

Percentage Bill Payments in Australia

In terms of Bill Viewing:

• One third of the bill paying population is now aware of BPAY View, with greatest awareness among heavy Internet banking users (58%) and people committed to BPAY as a payment method (47%)
• 29% of the 10 million strong bill paying population will consider using BPAY View.

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