C2B Payments Solution Provider Sionic Debuts RTP for US Businesses

Sionic today announced what it says is the first service allowing immediate point-of-sale payments from customer accounts to business accounts.

The Atlanta-based company said businesses will not only receive funds nearly instantly, but also will avoid “expensive credit card swipe fees.” The service, according to the company, will also let businesses give customers perks such as free goods or services if they choose to use Sionic service rather than credit or debit cards.

“This is a good step forward in helping merchants combat inflation,” Ronald Herman, founder and chief executive of Sionic, said in a prepared statement.

Businesses globally paid $110 billion in credit card fees in 2020, Herman stated in Sionic’s announcement, and that doesn’t count the late fees consumers pay.

“Bringing instant digital bank payments to commerce provides a new way to more equitably reallocate value back to both the merchants and the consumers. The Great Reallocation of digital payments is here,” he said.

According to Sionic’s announcement, the company’s most-innovative product announcement is ULink, which the company says facilitates bank-to-bank transfers from customer accounts to merchant accounts “via mobile, online, in-store, or in-vehicle experiences.”

Sionic stated that it is working with financial institutions through the RTP Network and is doing payment processing through CyberSource.

Prior to launching Sionic, Herman, according to his LinkedIn profile, was chief executive of Intellione Technologies.

Point-of-sale technologies have undergone seismic shifts as digital systems of several stripes have challenged paper and plastic payments for their dominance. There are dozens and possibly even hundreds of hardware and software changes big and small that have shifted, expanded and grown the boundaries of how a consumer can pay for the goods and services they want to buy from a merchant.

See also: Why POS Should Be More Like Tesla

Cayan co-founder and CEO Henry Helgeson says the point of sale has become something of a canvas onto which merchants are now able to construct a much fuller experience.

“The technology now can actually enhance the checkout experience – and make it a positive. If we do it right, merchants will be able to deliver a better experience that a consumer will want to gravitate to.”