Real-Time Innovators Bring Data To Corporates

Real-time rails continue to gain traction as solution providers debut new tools wielding existing instant payment infrastructure to enhance their offerings to business customers.

Increasingly, those value-added services are not only focusing on speed of payment, but also enhancing the data that end-users can access about their transactions, with new solutions from Bank of America and Scotiabank some of the latest to bring real-time rails to corporates.

Visa Talks Payment Rail Innovation

In a PYMNTS interview this month, Visa Global Head of New Payment Flows at Visa Business Solutions Alan Koenigsberg discussed the need for existing payment rails to innovate and adapt to new use cases.

“When we think about rails, we think about them as a means to an endpoint,” he said.

In B2B payments, added Visa Direct Vice President of Global Segments and Market Development Tim Summers, businesses don’t care exactly how funds get from Point A to Point B, but the rails that facilitate the movement of funds must do so seamlessly.

“They want a user-friendly solution, but most importantly, they want those funds,” he said.

In this regard, payment networks, payment rails and financial institution (FI) infrastructures can all collaborate together to adapt to emerging use cases, including the need to move data along with money.

Bank Of America Wields SWIFT gpi

Bank of America has built a new solution using SWIFT’s gpi rail, which integrates with domestic rails, to enable cross-border payment tracking for its corporate customers.

Bank of America said its business clients currently using its CashPro solution will have access to its Self-Service Payment Tracker, which uses gpi to track transactions as they move across borders, including insight into payment fees and foreign exchange rates, the timing of payment settlement, identity of the recipient, and correspondent banks that facilitated the movement of funds.

Head of Global Strategy and Payments for Global Transaction Services David Kretz said the solution aims to “remove friction and bring transparency to cross-border payments.”

Scotiabank Launches Real-Time Payments For Businesses

Canada’s Scotiabank revealed the debut of its real-time payments solution that is now available to business customers, pointing to the value of instant transactions in B2B payments to reduce the risk of late payments or help buyers capture early payment discounts.

Businesses can use a recipient’s accounting number or email address to initiate a payment, while transaction data is enhanced to support the reconciliation process. The solution is made possible through the adoption of the funds transfer service Interac eTransfer for Business.

According to the bank, it is the first in Canada to introduce faster payments for business customers.

Fabrick, Nets Collaborate On Instant Payments

Open banking platform Fabrick revealed its initiative with payment processing firm Nets to develop new services surrounding instant payments.

In a press release offered by Nets, the companies said the collaboration will look to accelerate the payments modernization evolution and create new revenue streams for existing joint customers. They pointed to their first clients as part of the collaboration, Slovenia-based payment processing company Bankart, which deployed Nets and Fabrick technology to launch its nationwide SEPA Instant Credit Transfer service with 15 bank customers. Nets and Fabrick provided the infrastructure for instant clearing and settlement, as well as white labeled mobile apps.

In a statement, Fabrick Deputy CEO Marco Casartelli said, “Instant Payments is an integral part of the trend towards a cashless society and it is an important space for us to operate in.”

Emirates NBD Debuts Its Enterprise Payment Hub

With a focus on real-time payments, Emirates NBD has announced in a press release its Enterprise Payment Hub, an interface that consolidates multiple payment products and services for corporates to manage payments across entities and currencies.

The solution was first launched in Singapore and is now available across most of the bank’s markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. The solution deploys SWIFT’s gpi to enable tracking of a payment transaction across borders, and it supports straight-through processing to facilitate a seamless end-user experience.

In a statement, Group Chief Operating Officer Abdulla Qassem said the tool “strongly positions us to offer our customers the most innovative real-time payment solutions as they emerge.”