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In September, payment infrastructure solutions provider EBA Clearing announced that 26 financial institutions had started work on a pan-European request to pay (R2P) solution scheduled to go live in the second half of 2020.
This secure messaging service will allow corporates to send a payment request to their bank, which is then forwarded to the bank of the payer, which asks the payer if they want to make the payment.
Within a week, Mastercard announced its intention to participate in Pay.UK’s R2P service with a bill payment solution due to launch in the first quarter of next year. A survey of UK businesses commissioned by the payments authority late last year suggested that many saw R2P as an opportunity to increase customer engagement, demonstrate goodwill and deepen relationships.
Marijke Koninckx, |
Mastercard declined to comment on how its service would impact corporate payments in the UK. However, just two days later fintech Bankifi launched a service called PocketCollector, which allows businesses to send invoices electronically and offers customers a payment option straight from this invoice. As the payment details are pre-filled, a payment initiation request is initiated through open banking and the customer only needs to authorize the payment.