U.S. Bank to Offer Secure Vault Payments for Online Tuition Payments to University of Wisconsin-Stout

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. Bank will offer Secure Vault Payments (SVP), a secure and convenient online payment option for student tuition payments and related education fees, to the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.

“It’s an online payment option that gives students and their parents a safe, familiar environment that is offered through a trusted source, their financial institution. And with the real-time authorization of funds on ACH payments, it can also help University of Wisconsin-Stout reduce their payment processing costs.”

With SVP, students or their parents initiate payments on a college or university web site and are automatically redirected to their own financial institution’s online banking platform to select which account they wish to use for payment. They are then returned to the school’s site, where they receive payment confirmation.

Financial institutions authenticate the payer and provide schools with real-time authorization and confirmation of payment. Because the payer doesn’t share any financial account information, there is no need for the schools to store the payer’s account information.

“We’re pleased that the University of Wisconsin-Stout has joined the SVP network,” said Eric Lim, senior product manager at U.S. Bank. “It’s an online payment option that gives students and their parents a safe, familiar environment that is offered through a trusted source, their financial institution. And with the real-time authorization of funds on ACH payments, it can also help University of Wisconsin-Stout reduce their payment processing costs.”

SVP was developed by NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association — in an effort to reduce paper checks and increase use of the ACH Network. The SVP switch technology that transfers users between the biller’s site and the financial institution’s site is provided by eWise, the exclusive network provider for SVP.

About U.S. Bank

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), with $308 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2010, is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States. The company operates 3,069 banking offices in 25 states and 5,310 ATMs and provides a comprehensive line of banking, brokerage, insurance, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services products to consumers, businesses and institutions. Visit U.S. Bancorp on the web at www.usbank.com.

About NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association

NACHA manages the development, administration, and governance of the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data. The ACH Network serves as a safe, secure, reliable network for direct consumer, business, and government payments, and annually facilitates billions of payments such as Direct Deposit and Direct Payment. Utilized by all types of financial institutions, the ACH Network is governed by the NACHA Operating Rules, a set of fair and equitable rules that guide risk management and create certainty for all participants. As a not-for-profit association, NACHA represents nearly 11,000 financial institutions via 17 regional payments associations and direct membership. Through its industry councils and forums, NACHA brings together payments system stakeholders to enable innovation that strengthens the industry with creative payment solutions. To learn more, visit www.nacha.org www.electronicpayments.org and www.payitgreen.org.