the FINANCIAL — Early Warning Services, LLC and The Clearing House (TCH) announced Zelle® transactions can now be cleared and settled over the RTP® network.
“Demand for faster payments has never been higher, and today’s integration milestone eliminates lengthy and costly legacy processes that have long been barriers to many real-time payment settlements between financial institutions,” said Lou Anne Alexander, chief product officer, Early Warning Services. “Our combined foundation will provide all financial institutions an easy solution for new and emerging business use cases, including bill pay.”
Bank of America and PNC Bank are the first to send Zelle payments over the RTP network, providing consumers and businesses a fully digital payment experience with improved efficiency by leveraging the emerging global ISO 20022 message standard. By sending Zelle payments over the RTP network, financial institutions can enable instant settlement and simpler back-office processing, improving efficiency and reducing costs Bank of America nites.
“Bank of America and PNC Bank are trailblazing a path to integrated real-time payments capabilities that will soon benefit individual account holders and corporate customers,” said Steve Ledford, senior vice president of product strategy and development, The Clearing House. “The integration of Zelle payments over the RTP network means that financial institutions will soon realize the benefits of future technology synergies between the Zelle and RTP networks.”
Businesses to Have a Fully Digital Bill Payment Experience
According to Bank of America, moving to a real-time bill presentment and payment experience will allow businesses to increase customer satisfaction and decrease cost of collections. In the future, when leveraging the two networks’ combined capabilities, businesses can send bills electronically, reducing the amount spent on paper and postage while enhancing the customer service experience. By utilizing Zelle to request a payment, corporate customers will not need to store and transmit a customer’s bank account information, increasing the level of safety and security during a transaction.
“This is a great example of technology advancing the way we – and our clients – do business. Combining the speed of Zelle and the RTP network will create new powerful opportunities for companies to seamlessly and efficiently interact with consumers and small businesses,” said Chris Ward, executive vice president and head of product & operations, PNC Treasury Management. “Corporate customers will no longer need to collect bank account information. Instead, they can focus on transacting through the U.S. banking system with a customer’s email address or U.S. mobile number they use to enroll with Zelle.”
Consumers to Have Greater Control Over Payment Timing
With these future advancements, consumers will benefit from full transparency and control of their digital payments, including immediate insight into account balances and real-time payment confirmations.
“This effort continues to advance the speed, security, and efficiency of payments for consumers,” said Mark Monaco, head of enterprise payments at Bank of America. “The powerful combination of Zelle along with the robust messaging and settlement capabilities of the RTP network will help consumers better manage their money and reduce the potential for late payments by giving them more control over the timing of payments and the immediate confirmation of receipt. We’re pleased to partner in these important innovations to improve the payments system.”
