[ljm]

Heh, we generally cover all of that with a direct debit across the pond, both in the UK and EU (through SEPA). There isn't really a notion of an 'automatic bill paying service', you offer the provider the mandate to take payment from your account. This mandate is fully transferable and revocable and encoded in a standardised format.

You wouldn't be able to run a bank without it. Most monthly outgoings will be through such an agreement.

(I've worked on such systems. XML up the wazoo but you're expected to be able to cryptographically verify a mandate years after the fact, for auditing purposes, so the format works. And it's all API'd up.)