Small Businesses Express Strong Desire for Electronic Payment Solutions from Their Banks, Reveals New Small Business Survey

NEW YORK, April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CashEdge Inc. (www.cashedge.com), the leading provider of Intelligent Money Movement® services, today announced the results from its 2011 Small Business Payables and Receivables Survey, which found that there is a strong desire among small businesses to accelerate and simplify current payable/receivable processes and a willingness to adopt new electronic payment solutions in support of this. Importantly, most of these small businesses also report a strong loyalty to their bank, representing a key opportunity for banks to provide these payment services.

Conducted by CashEdge, the study examined the behavior and preferences of 405 small businesses as they relate to their overall payables and receivables processes. Small businesses were defined by $1 million or less in annual sales revenue.

The survey found that while most small businesses still rely on manual, spreadsheet and paper-based systems for their account payables and receivables processes, the majority are interested in new solutions that would increase the speed of customer payments. In fact, 60 percent said that they would use an ACH receivables service for getting paid electronically if it did not require sharing account information.

"As we've seen with consumer banking, there is a strong, growing desire for more electronic P2P payments solutions among the small business segment," says Neil Platt, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Banking & Payments, CashEdge Inc. "Small businesses are looking for faster, simpler and more efficient options for both payables and receivables. We see this as a tremendous opportunity for banks to strengthen key small business relationships by providing more electronic payment options – such as Popmoney and TransferNow for Small Business – to their small business banking customers."

Additional key survey findings included the following:

Small Business Owners are Looking for New Solutions to Get Paid Faster

• Respondents reported an average of 19 days to collect payments from customers
• 60 percent of respondents want to reduce the total days to payment

Demand for Electronic Vendor Payments is Strong

• 19 percent of respondents already leverage ACH transfers for vendor payments
• An additional 38 percent would do so if it were available to them

Small Businesses Demonstrate Strong Loyalty and Online Banking Usage

• 69 percent hold both their personal and business accounts at the same institution
• 76 percent use online banking for their small business

CashEdge's Popmoney® Small Business solutions allow financial institutions to provide their customers a complete offering for online accounts payable and receivable management. Popmoney Small Business provides businesses with the ability to invoice and collect from customers, and to pay vendors and employees electronically using only an email address, mobile number or an account number.

About CashEdge's Small Business Payables and Receivables Survey

Commissioned by CashEdge in January 2011, the survey polled 405 small businesses, as defined by $1 million or less in annual sales revenue. All respondents are direct decision makers in the financial management process. Sixty percent described themselves as the sole business owner, 16 percent described themselves as a co-owner or partner.  The vast majority of respondents work at firms with five or less employees (86 percent). While respondents represented a wide range of industries including retail, real estate and consumer service, the largest portion (39 percent) of respondents described their industry/place of business as "professional services."

The national study was administered online in January 2011. The margin of error for the survey is four percent.

For the complete summary of the survey findings, please contact Jennifer Moritz at [email protected].

About CashEdge

CashEdge is the leading provider of Intelligent Money Movement® solutions to financial institutions, including person-to-person (P2P) payments, "me-to-me" account transfers, account opening and funding, small business payments and receivables management, and financial account aggregation. The Company's clients include over 650 leading financial institutions, including eight of the ten largest banks in the country.

CashEdge's industry-leading products include Popmoney®, a bank-enabled email and mobile P2P payments service offered by leading banks; Popmoney Small Business, TransferNow® for me-to-me transfers; and OpenNow®/FundNow® for new account opening and funding.  All CashEdge products are supported by industry-leading risk management capabilities that leverage proprietary technology to help financial institutions mitigate risk and reduce fraud.

The Company is headquartered in New York City with offices in Silicon Valley and India. For more information, visit www.cashedge.com or www.popmoney.com.

SOURCE CashEdge Inc.