This blog was first published on LinkedIn.
“Request to Pay has the potential to change the full scope of payment behaviour from instore, online, Business to Business and Business to Consumer”
Last Thursday, the European Payments Council (EPC) published the 2021 versions of their SEPA Scheme Rulebooks. Today the final version of the SEPA Request to Pay Scheme Rulebook is published as well.
(The 2021 version of the SEPA Scheme Rulebooks can be found here: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/news/publication-2021-epc-sepa-payment-scheme-rulebooks. The final version of the SEP Request to Pay Scheme Rulebook can be found here: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/document-library/rulebooks/sepa-request-pay-rtp-scheme-rulebook )
The new Request to Pay scheme has great potential to revolutionise payments and promises secure messaging between the consumer and the biller (or merchant) to improve the control, flexibility and transparency of paying bills. When it is combined with SEPA Instant Payments, it also promises instant availability of funds.
Tino Kam, Head of Payments, Liquidity Management and Corporate Channels at Nordea, says: “…it is easy to imagine Request to Pay (R2P) becoming the dominant payment method that transforms behaviour in all sorts of ways. This change to a fully R2P set up can undoubtedly bring benefits for both consumers and merchants. For example, in a B2C retail setting, a Point of Sale solution that is today a request to pay to a card accepted with a pin code can become a request to pay to a mobile device in store which is then given strong consent with a finger print ID. While you are still in the store, you will then have both the receipt of the items you have collected and approved the payment in real time.” (source: https://insights.nordea.com/en/innovation/transforming-payments-with-request-to-pay/)
Compared to the previous draft version, changes in the scheme rulebook are limited, just to name a few: the ability to exchange multiple RTP-messages between participants in one file, extra details in terms of rights and obligations of participants and the annexes I (trust and security framework), II (adherence agreement and related documents) are added. Important to note is the intention to certify parties that want to become a Request to Pay Service Provider.
The timing is now also clear; Request to Pay is set to go-live on the 15th of June 2021. The SEPA Request to Pay scheme adherence process is envisaged to start May 2021. This effectively gives banks, RTP service providers and merchants 5 months to get ready.
Following the publication of our 11-page Practical guide to SEPA Request to Pay (which we will update next week with the latest developments in the final version of the scheme rulebook!) and our Request to Pay cheat sheet (see attached), Mark Munne and I have our first workshops planned to help potential service providers, merchants and banks to get grips with these new developments.
If you want to see what Request for Pay can do for your organisation, please reach out to one of us. We will be able to help you extract the most value out of this new promising addition to the SEPA Rulebooks.
Mark Munne is independent international payments consultant over a decade. See his profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmunne/
Paul van der Valk is a senior international professional specialised in payments consultancy, program and product management. See his profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-van-der-valk-63b6391/