NATURE OF OPERATIONS

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

NATURE OF OPERATIONS [Abstract]

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

NOTE 1—NATURE OF OPERATIONS

Official Payments Holdings, Inc., or Official Payments, (formerly known as Tier Technologies, Inc.) primarily provides electronic payment solutions ("Payment Solutions"), which are provided by our wholly owned subsidiary Official Payments Corporation, or OPC.  We provide payment solutions to the following types of Clients:

· Federal, State and Local governments—which includes federal and state income and business tax payments, and local real property tax payments;

· Higher Education—which consists of payments to post-secondary educational institutions;

· Utility—which includes payments to private and public utilities;

· Charitable organizations; and

· Other—which includes rent, insurance, and K-12 education meal payments and fee payments.

We also operate in one other business area, our Voice and Systems Automation, or VSA, business. We expect to wind down our VSA business during fiscal year 2014, because we do not believe the services are compatible with our long-term strategic direction.  VSA provides call center interactive voice response systems and support services, including customization, installation and maintenance.

For additional information about our Payment Solutions and VSA operations, see Note 11—Segment Information.