Fixed Mobile Convergence

Mitek Systems, Inc is gearing up to launch an application called Mobile Photo Bill Pay, which the company says will allow customers to deposit a check into their bank as well as pay bills just at the click of few buttons on their smartphone.

The service, which may have already been available on iPhone (News - Alert), is all about taking pictures of the bills. Once you take the pictures, Mitek’s app does the rest -- correcting image distortion, reading relevant data and processing the transactions through the users’ banks.

All you have to do is pick out your mobile phone, snap the picture of the bills they are needed to be paid, and then verify the payment information and click on the app’s “PAY” button.

Transactions conclude with verification that the users’ bills have been paid and electronic payments have been sent from their financial institutions.

 So, you no longer have to write checks, lick stamps, visit a payment location or even use their personal computers. Mitek demonstrated its app at the ongoing BAI (News - Alert) Retail Delivery Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

 Not just Apple’s iPhone, Mitek says it will soon make the service available on other smartphones and operating systems including BlackBerry, Google’s Android and Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Phone 7.

“In today’s fast-paced world, we work and play from anywhere, making smartphones the devices of choice for those always on the go,” said Mitek CEO James DeBello.

The app eliminates the hassle of setting up information for individual payee accounts because Mitek technology extracts the data from the photo image and automatically provides it to the financial institution’s bill-processing system in the required format.

Users need to photograph their bills only once and payee information is automatically saved in the application’s vendor list for future use.

“In an era being defined by the intimacy and utility of smartphones, we see Mobile Photo Bill Pay as a major convenience for users and one more way for the financial institutions to strengthen bonds with their customers and ultimately increase loyalty,” DeBello added.DeBello said Mitek is now in discussions for the distribution of Mobile Phone (News - Alert) Bill Pay with a number of leading banks, integrators of technology solutions and applications services providers for the financial services industry.