Bank of America Corp. is charging some customers to receive their monthly statement in the mail, the industry's most aggressive move yet to encourage paperless banking.

For now, the $8.95 monthly fee applies to just one type of account, and only in Georgia. But B of A plans to roll out the product in other markets soon as a replacement for its popular student checking account, which has no monthly fees when opened online.

With overdraft fees and interchange from debit cards under fire, financial companies are eager to find new sources of recurring revenue.

While some banks might be reluctant to impose a fee for such a basic service, observers say that Bank of America is setting an important precedent and that other financial companies are likely to follow its example.

TechCrunch

In what is potentially a big win for Software-as-a-Service accounting startup KashFlow, Barclaycard is inviting its business customers to join an e-invoicing pilot powered by the London-based company’s wares.

According to an email that has been circulated by Barclaycard that we’ve seen, the credit card company, which is owned by UK bank Barclays, is inviting merchants to apply on a first come first served basis with the pilot scheme being limited to 100 places. This would seem to indicate that Barclaycard is taking a somewhat cautious approach, although we understand it to be the first time that a major bank has backed an SaaS accounting package from a UK tech start-up.

Mintel Comperemedia

Mintel Comperemedia, a service that provides direct marketing competitive intelligence, found that 45% of adults with access to the Internet have bypassed their banks' online bill payment service and go directly to the biller's website instead. Twenty-two percent of online banking customers have never paid a bill online at all.

SMR

Best AP departments 50 times as productive as the least effective.

Basware, the global leader in purchase-to-pay solutions, today announced the findings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting1 on behalf of Basware, examining the performances of accounts payable departments in relation to the levels of efficiency within their invoice handling processes. The study finds that the best AP departments are 50 times as productive as the least effective2. Applying a complete purchase-to-pay process combining e-invoicing, integrated procurement and finance solutions, is found to lead to excellence in accounts payable departments, and increased productivity for organizations.