Citigroup is expanding its use of The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network to let its corporate customers send out bills to consumers and get paid instantly.
Citi was of the first banks to participate in the
For the banks' consumer customers, the payment request messages let them pay their bills immediately at any time of the day, 365 days a year.
When receiving a Request for Payment message, consumers will have the option to pay the bill right away, giving them more control over their finances and management of their accounts.
"Citi is open and ready to support all U.S. billers wishing to use our complete end-to-end solution for sending Request for Payment messages to improve the overall experience for consumers," Alberto Casas, North America head for payments and receivables with Citi's treasury and trade solutions, said in a press release Monday.
The payment request process for institutional billers potentially allows improved straight-through reconciliation, with the possibility of fewer operational exceptions associated with ACH direct debits and other traditional payment methods. It also shows in real time when payments will be settled, cutting down on calls to the biller or bank customer service.
"Citi enabling its institutional clients to send RfP messages, and its consumer customers to receive them, is an important step toward making real-time payments ubiquitous in the U.S.," Steve Ledford, senior vice president of product and strategy at The Clearing House, said in the release.
In September, Citi became the first bank to be able to receive, display and pay e-bills from participating billers on behalf of its account holders.
"We are excited to be the first bank with the capability to offer real-time payments to our millions of U.S. customers," Kate Luft, head of retail U.S. segments and products at Citi, said in the release. "This capability further helps us to remove friction in the payment process, providing our customers with more options to pay how and when they choose."
