The present invention consists of a secure interactive electronic account statement 
delivery system suitable for use over open networks such as 
the Internet. The invention utilizes a certification hierarchy to insure that electronic bills, invoices, and other account statements can be securely sent over open networks. The participants in the 
system are a certification authority, certificated banks, billers, and customers. The certification authority grants digital certificates to the certificated banks, which in turn grant digital certificates to billers and customers. Digital certificates form the basis for 
encryption and 
authentication of network communications, using public and private keys. The certificates associate a customer and biller with a certificated 
bank and with the 
electronic billing system, much like 
payment cards associate a customer with a 
payment card issuer and a particular 
payment card 
system. Digital signatures are used for 
authentication and non-repudiation. The certificates may be stored as 
digital data on storage media of a customer's or biller's computer system, or may be contained in 
integrated circuit or 
chip cards physically issued to billers and customers. The electronic bill itself may be a simple 
text message containing the equivalent of 
summary information for the bill, or may be more elaborate. In one embodiment of the invention, the electronic bill contains a number of embedded links, for example an embedded URL of a biller's 
world wide web server that allows the customer to interactively bring up detailed billing information by activating the link. The e-mail message may also include links to 
third party websites.