Mastercard is working with PNC Bank to pilot a system that lets businesses pay suppliers in real-time when receiving goods or services.
The Payment on Delivery programme, which taps the Clearing House's RTP network for real-time clearing and settlement, is designed for industries with complex distribution networks and supply chains.
It promises to cut down onerous paperwork, manual processes and complicated reconciliation largely driven by the use of cash and cheques, enabling suppliers to get instant access to funds and rich information associated with the transaction, leading to better insights into cash flow.
The first use-case will centre on alcohol distribution, with Mastercard working with enterprise resource planning provider Rutherford & Associates to facilitate payments in the regulation-heavy wine and spirits distribution industry.
Ron Shultz, EVP, new payment flows, North America, Mastercard, says: “Our real-time payment capabilities not only connects buyers and sellers to enable payments to happen in real-time, but also provides them with real-time information to drive efficiency, control, security, and transparency on the backend.”