Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Transactis, a platform that helps businesses deliver bills and receive payments through one simple-to-navigate experience.

In today’s digital age, a surprising 44 percent of the 15 billion bills that Americans pay each year are made by paper check or cash. Consumers who pay their bills online do so in a variety of ways, including online banking applications or biller’s websites.

Transactis’ technology helps companies improve their customers’ bill payment experience, while reducing inefficiencies associated with paper bills and checks.  It provides access to a flexible digital service that can be used by even the smallest businesses, such as schools and property owners, who often don’t support online bill pay.

Transactis distributes its technology through a broad network of bank and non-bank partners.

“We see Transactis as strengthening our support of the bill payments space,” said Colleen Taylor, executive vice president of new payment platforms, North America for Mastercard. “Transactis’ technical and commercial know-how, combined with our reach and comprehensive payment options will greatly simplify the entire process. We’ll be able to deliver a better real-time consumer experience, from sign-up to viewing and paying bills, leveraging the investments that have been made in the core infrastructure.”

Redefining Online Bill Pay
Last fall, Mastercard announced Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange, a new digital solution that makes it easier for consumers to view, manage and pay telecom, utility, rent, credit card, mortgage and other personal bills. The platform allows consumers to use their existing banking apps to easily set up all billers, receive notifications when a bill is due, see bill details, and manage multiple bills in one place including specifying when and how much to pay.

Bill Pay Exchange is offered to banks and credit unions through a core set of APIs, enabling them to provide this service to their customers through one easy interaction. While some bill pay services only offer card or ACH-based payments, Bill Pay Exchange provides the choice of all payment types – including real-time payments – through the consumer’s existing online or mobile banking app.

Enhanced Capabilities, Better Experience
With the acquisition of Transactis, Mastercard will now be able to address bill payment needs in online bank applications as well as in biller websites with enhanced end user interfaces, expanded payment options and digital bill presentment capabilities.

“Mastercard has been a great partner and pushed the industry forward in this space,” said Joe Proto, Transactis CEO. “Historically, neither the Bank Bill Pay nor Biller Direct models has delivered the ideal experience or the complete solution. We see this as a unique opportunity to bring our complementary technologies together to deliver a better bill pay experience accelerating the migration of paper bill and checks to these online channels.”

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter. Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange is slated for full launch later in the year.