16 April 2003 12:00am

Newsagents will embark on a further attempt to provide services at the edge of banking, with plans to introduce a bill payments service in the second half of the year. The Australian Newsagents Federation will pilot a service, to be known as "bill express", from June.

The ANF yesterday notified members that the Bill Express service would access the billing relationships established by Coles Myer for its bill payment service currently offered on the ServiceATM in all Coles Supermarkets. Coles Myer has 28 billers, comprising most of Australia's major telcos and utilities.