Having been touted as the ‘missing piece of the instant payment puzzle,’ many are keenly interested in the potential Request-to-Pay holds for streamlining payments, improving customer experience, and optimising liquidity through better cash management and visibility.
On May 5, the European Payments Council (EPC) announced on that both payment service provider and non-PSPs across Europe are able to apply for adherence to the EPC’s SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) scheme ahead of its effective date on 15 June 2021.
The SRTP functionality complements end-to-end payment flows as it allows a payee to request the initiation of a payment from a payer in a wide range of both physical and online use cases. Progress toward implementation of SRTP functionality is being watched closely given the reported benefits it offers as an enabler of digital payments.
Over the last two months, the EPC asked professionals from the payments industry to respond to the following question: “In your opinion, for which situation would the SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) scheme be the most useful?”
Results of the poll found that substantially over half of the voters (56%) indicated that Customer-to-Merchant (C2M)/(M2C) and Business-to-Customer (B2C)/(C2B) would be the most useful situations for SRTP.
EBA Clearing, the pan-European payment system operator delivering an R2P functionality, successfully launched its testing phase in June 2020 and its technical delivery was completed on November 30, 2020 - in line with the EPC’s first SRTP scheme rulebook. In a note on EBA Clearing’s website it states that its “R2P access model is subject to review in light of the further evolution of the EPC SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) Scheme Rulebook.” The EPC site currently lists a three-month public consultation on SRTP between May and August this year.
Additionally, the Euro Banking Association with support from PPI is currently preparing the publication of its Request to Pay Survey, based on Request-to-Pay input from a broad range of businesses across Europe. The report is expected to be released soon.
Request to Pay will be a core topic discussed at the Euro Banking Association and Finextra’s EBAday 2021. Running in digital format on 28-30 June for its sixteenth year, the event will welcome a host of board directors, chief executive officers and payments and technology heads from Europe’s leading banks, as well as selected fintechs and registration is now open.