Willie Sutton, the notorious bank robber, held up many banks because according to him “that’s where all the money is”. If Willie Sutton came back from the dead (he died in 1980) and arrived in Ireland, he might be forced to look elsewhere for potential business. This is due to the increasing number of firms, other than the clearing banks, who participate in the payments business and who provide services to either the business sector or the individual.

Many of these organisations have established payment operations to provide services such as mobile top-up, bill payment or gift services, through retailers including smaller shops, petrol stations, etc. The result is greater customer choice and far more convenience.

We have recently arrived at a situation where there is an extraordinary number of ways to pay your ESB bill when you include the various bank options amongst others. It appears that the only way you cannot pay an ESB bill is at the ESB office itself. Here is a non-comprehensive list of the options available to individuals to pay their ESB bills:

- Send a cheque in the post to ESB customer supply
- Using a bank giro at your local bank or credit union
- By post office giro at your local post office
- By direct debit from your bank account
- By laser card over the phone
- By repeat transaction from your credit card account
- By telephone banking (provided your bank provides this service)
- By Internet banking from your bank’s online banking system
- Online via certain ATMs
- Through www.billpay.ie, the online bill payment system of An Post
- Through Paypoint at any of about 500 local retailers or credit unions
- Through Postpoint at any of 3,000 different retailers
- By Electronic Money Transfer (from outside ROI)

The availability of such diverse means to perform a very simple transaction creates in itself a whole range of issues. The range of ways that the issuer of a bill can receive funds is a problem when attempting to do reconciliation. Moreover, the charges which the bill issuer receives from all of the system operators can be very substantial.

For the economy as a whole there is an even more serious issue. Almost all of the channels on the above list are each configured with sufficient capacity to handle the ESB bills of the country with little enhancement. Accordingly, there is massive overcapacity and potential redundancy in these systems. Consequently there is a higher collective cost to the economy. It is a luxury that I find difficult to accept. It should be noted that the overcapacity was already there before the arrival of new operators – they made it worse.

Other countries, most notably Spain and Portugal, have made determined efforts to address issue. Over a small number of years the payment of utility bills in these regions has been almost entirely transferred to a single method (direct debit) with savings generated for all parties involved.

Within Ireland itself, companies such as Aer Lingus and in particular Ryanair, have massively reduced the number of payment methods accepted, thereby simplifying their business model significantly. In contrast, the approach of the major utility behemoths has been to accept that a large proportion of our population should be facilitated to conduct their entire financial affairs in cash.

Many of the outlets listed above accept cash payments. There are indications that 20% of this sector is composed of adults (individuals without bank accounts). I do admit that I have some sympathy for the utilities since any serious attempt to change customer behaviour or to withdraw some services is likely to confront the wrath of a cynical media and indeed opportunist politicians.