Improve government payments with electronic billing platforms

Consumer expectations and a federal mandate are ratcheting up the pressure on state and local governments to migrate to digital payment programs for consumer collections — and banks can support that migration with their electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) platforms.

EBPP can enable agencies at all levels of government to exit the business of processing paper checks and instead give citizens paying a parking ticket or a utility bill the same convenient experience they have become accustomed to when making a monthly mortgage payment or paying for a hospital stay.

“Consumers are used to being able to do so many things online, and they’ve come to expect a modern payment experience from their government, whether it’s federal, state or local,” says Matt Farrow, vice president and head of C2B products at U.S. Bank.

Momentum builds for government EBPP

The urgency to offer online billing and payment has intensified with the executive order mandating that, starting in September 2025, payments to the federal government — including fees, fines, loan and taxes — must be processed electronically where permissible under existing law. In issuing the order, the White House noted that “maintaining the physical infrastructure and specialized technology for digitizing paper records cost the American taxpayer over $657 million in fiscal year 2024 alone.”

In addition, two states, Arizona and California, have passed legislation requiring digital payments for tax collection.

The federal electronic payment initiative will provide a model to other levels of government, Farrow says, and he expects more states will eventually follow the lead of Arizona and California.

Key benefits to citizens

EBPP enables businesses to generate and deliver electronic bills or invoices to their customers, eliminating the need for traditional paper-based billing.

Electronic government payment solutions provide end-to-end support throughout the bill pay process, including alerts and communication, self-service options, multiple payment methods (ACH, credit cards and eventually other rails) and multiple communication channels (from phone to computer to text).

These full-service websites are made for managing regular, periodic billing, like municipal utilities payments, but are also ideal for payments related to taxes, court fees, parking violations or speeding tickets, or online license transactions, including pet licenses, hunting fees or motor vehicle registrations.

EBPP offers a wide range of benefits to citizens who need to make payments to a government entity:

• Contactless – Citizens can access information and payment with the click of a mouse instead of waiting in line.
• Efficiency – They can eliminate the commute to and from the payment center.
• Reliability – Digital payment allows quick visibility to the payment process rather than waiting for confirmation that a mailed payment has been processed.
• Satisfaction – Paying when and how they want improves citizen engagement.

Better use of staff time, tax dollars

In addition to improving citizen satisfaction, full-service digital billing and payment systems can improve cash flow and create cost and operational efficiencies, all at a time when government entities are facing declining budgets.

Using electronic government payment systems, agencies can significantly reduce expenses associated with paper, printing, postage and manual handling of bills. Taking into account staff salaries, benefits, technology, overhead and other operating expenses, processing a single paper-based bill costs $9.40, while digital or automated billing can lower processing costs per bill to $2.78, according to a 2025 report from PYMNTS Intelligence and FIS.

“Adopting an EBPP platform lets you do more with less by freeing up municipal and state employees to do tasks other than just collecting fees,” Farrow adds.

Staff can spend less time responding to inbound payment inquiries by phone and email, as well as balancing and reconciling payments. And with electronic government payment solutions, reporting becomes more automated, which helps free up staff to work on other activities and projects that benefit the public.

The efficiency and communication built into EBPP systems address one of the most common pain points for government entities — getting paid on time and accurately. For instance, agencies can encourage timely payer behavior with integrated communications and reminders.

When you use an electronic government payment system, there’s no more waiting for checks in the mail, no more waiting for payments to clear, and no more sending out collection notices that pass the payment in the mail.

The consumer has control over their payment, the government biller has visibility into the payment process, and funds are available from that payment no more than a day later.

A consistent payment experience

An EBPP platform enables a state or local government to provide a consistent payment experience to citizens across multiple departments, rather than fragmented solutions, Farrow says.

“In your average large city, there are probably about 35 different departments that take payments,” he explains. “For a citizen, that might mean paying taxes using one system, paying for auto license and registration fees through another system, and for a speeding ticket through yet another.”

When citizens making payments to a single state or municipal government must use multiple systems to make payments to different departments within those governments, and each system looks different, it can be confusing. And confusion can lead to an agency receiving high volumes of customer service inquiries. But with an EBPP platform, the citizen’s payment experience can be the same across all departments within that unit of government.

In addition, EBPP platforms give agencies easy online system access to quickly confirm for citizen callers that their payments have been received, reducing service call times.

Mitigating fraud risk, maintaining data security

Finally, if citizen satisfaction, cost savings, improved cash flow and consistency aren’t enough, another compelling benefit of EBPP for government agencies is mitigating fraud risk.

According to a 2025 report from the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), checks continue to be the payment method most often subjected to fraud. “Anytime you’re taking a check payment in person, or even sending a check in the mail, the payer’s bank account information is exposed,” Farrow notes.

By adopting EBPP, not only does a government agency reduce check fraud exposure, but it also offloads the responsibility for keeping the consumer’s payment data secure. “By using EBPP, the agency transfers a lot of the security requirements to the bank,” Farrow says.

Connecting with the right payments partner can make all the difference in the success of your payment modernization effort. Contact us to learn how we help government agencies maximize payments with our full-service eBill solutions, which we can configure to meet the unique needs of each of your departments.