RTP Explores Incentives For The B2B Payment Use Case

With real-time payments gaining speed, payment rail innovators are looking to expand their functionality and continue to drive adoption in B2B payments use cases. A refreshed focus on request-for-payment capabilities and real-time data integrations is opening up new incentives for corporates to embrace RTP®.

TAB Bank Loops Into RTP

Tab Bank is linking into the real-time payments network (RTP) through a partnership with Volante Technologies. Using Volante’s U.S. Real-time Payments-as-a-Service offering, TAB Bank will be able to offer its commercial business clients access to instant payment functionality. Specifically, TAB said the integration will facilitate the ability for business customers to receive funds in real time, with plans for the bank to introduce real-time sending of funds moving forward. The use of TAB’s open banking platform will also open up new opportunities to create new products and services that use RTP, the bank noted.

RTP’s Request-for-Payment Gains Steam

As The Clearing House’s RTP network gains traction, it is now exploring ways to expand the functionality of the rail. Most recently, that’s included efforts to onboard more financial institutions (FIs) to its request-for-payment (RFP) functionality — and, at a broader level, address friction in the billing arena.

In a recent conversation with Karen Webster, The Clearing House’s executive vice president of Product Development and Strategy Russ Waterhouse said banks’ participation in the feature was key in securing confidence among corporate billers that their own investments in RTP are worth while.

As that offering, too, gains traction, the focus remains on consumer bill payments. It’s a tool that could prove valuable in B2B payments as well, however, as well as for billers of subscription and recurring services.

ION Treasury Eyes Banks’ Role In Corporate RTP Adoption

In a recent conversation with PYMNTS, ION Treasury discussed the relationship between bank and treasurer, and how an FI has the ability to help — or hamper — the optimization of clients’ treasury operations. One key area is in offering real-time payment capabilities, especially as these payment rails support access to essential transaction data for finance leaders.

ION Vice president of Financial Services Product Management Jerald Seti noted that real-time liquidity management is an increasingly important priority for treasurers today. “A large segment [of treasurers] are still working under very manual circumstances, so their ability to see their cash position and understand liquidity often takes them quite a bit of time — days and weeks,” he said. “It’s not really acceptable at this point.”

By not only looping into modern, real-time payment rails, but also supporting a direct integration of transaction data into clients’ ERP and other back-office systems, banks can offer a valuable service to treasury customers in need of instant access to information.

Hunter Embraces Blockchain for Supply Chain Finance

Blockchain is back in the spotlight for the trade finance arena as Hunter Technologies ramps up its focus on using the infrastructure to facilitate supply chain finance. The company revealed in a recent announcement its partnership with RootAnt, in which Hunter is integrating blockchain technology in its OilEx oil marketplace. That integration will add smart contract technology to the platform for automated enforceability and security, and will see RootAnt add its supply chain finance platform Banco to connect buyers, sellers and financiers on the portal. The partnership can enable real-time financing, and according to the press release, the partners have plans to introduce additional features that use blockchain in the future.