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.
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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.
