Request for Payment Resources

Continuing our discussion of Instant Payments use cases from our previous Instant Payments Insights, we want to provide a deeper dive on one of the use cases that is anticipated to drive the adoption of Instant Payments: Request for Payment, or RFP.

RFP allows businesses to better manage their cash flow by using the Instant Payment networks to send e-invoices and receive instant bill payments from their customers, and it offers both business and consumer customers a convenient method to receive and pay e-invoices. Both RTP and FedNow Instant Payment networks support RFP.

It works by the biller sending an RFP message to its customer who receives it via online banking or mobile app. This e-invoice message allows the customer to schedule the Instant Payment to pay the invoice either immediately, or at a future date. The customer can choose the dollar amount to pay, and even schedule recurring payments. Even if the customer chooses to pay the invoice at a later time, an Instant Payment message can be sent to the biller informing them of when their customer has scheduled their next payment.

RFP affords financial institutions and service providers the opportunity to offer customized features that can include:

• Assisting businesses in creating detailed invoicing with integrated remittance capability
• Allowing customers to make partial payments that include a message about which items on the invoice the remittance relates to
• Similar to the Positive Pay feature for checks and ACH, it allows customers to automatically accept and pay RFPs from pre-approved businesses.

This month, the Fed published an RFP Market Practices Guide that is available on their FedNow Explorer website. It was created to help financial institutions and service providers establish market practices to promote a consistent end-customer experience for both RFP senders and receivers.

RFP is expected to be one of the most popular Instant Payments use cases that drives business and consumer adoption of Instant Payments. Financial institutions and service providers that are evaluating the implementation of Instant Payments should familiarize themselves with the potential of RFP and what their organizations will need to do to integrate RFP into their existing payment systems and platforms to maximize the benefits and user experience.