In 2020, the UK’s national retail payments operator, Pay.UK, launched Request to Pay — a framework designed to enable a more flexible, secure and customer-focused method for settling bills between individuals, organisations and businesses.
Request to Pay gives billers, such as telecom providers, a messaging channel that integrates with existing payments infrastructure. Instead of sending an invoice by post or email, a biller can send a payment request through channels customers already use, for example their banking app. Recipients can then pay in full, make a partial payment, or open a dialogue to dispute the charge or request more time to settle the bill.
The service helps billers reduce the time and cost spent chasing payments and resolving disputes while delivering a better customer experience. Industry estimates suggest Request to Pay could save the UK economy between £2 billion and £3 billion annually.
Mastercard introduced its Request to Pay solution in April 2021 to provide billers and billing service providers with the technical infrastructure needed to send and receive Request to Pay messages.
Telecoms Tech News spoke with James Bushby, Senior Vice President of Strategic Sales and Real-Time Payments at Mastercard, ahead of planned UK pilots, to explore how the system could benefit billers in the telecoms sector.
Telecoms Tech: What is your role at Mastercard?
James Bushby: I’m Senior Vice President of Strategic Sales and Real-Time Payments. I oversee Mastercard’s core account-to-account UK business relationships, including real-time payments, ATM managed services, and bill payment innovation.
TT: Could you introduce Request to Pay for those unfamiliar with it?
JB: Request to Pay is a UK bill payment framework developed by Pay.UK, the country’s central retail payments authority. Pay.UK operates systems such as Faster Payments, which enables real-time bank transfers, and Bacs, which handles direct debits and benefit payments.
Request to Pay is a secure messaging service that allows a biller to request payment from a payer and reconcile it within the same service. Unlike a direct debit, where funds are pulled from an account, Request to Pay pushes a prompt to the customer asking them to initiate payment.
TT: How does Mastercard fit into the Request to Pay framework?
JB: Mastercard helps markets digitise bill payments and modernise bill presentment. Our work began in the US with Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange, where we manage some 45 million electronic bill payments monthly for over 155,000 billers. We are now piloting in other markets and the UK is a priority.
Recent UK surveys and interviews we conducted show that bill payment and communication quality are major sources of customer dissatisfaction. More than a third of consumers find it difficult to resolve payment issues with their biller, and over 40% say a lack of meaningful communication hinders dispute resolution.
In the UK Request to Pay ecosystem, Mastercard’s role focuses on providing a central repository that securely stores and routes messages between billers and customers.
TT: How does Request to Pay help bill payers?
JB: Request to Pay gives consumers greater flexibility in managing payments. When a biller sends a request, the customer can pay in full, make a partial payment, or start a conversation with the biller to dispute charges, request clarification, or ask for additional time. Because verified payment details are included in the Request to Pay message and the payer must opt in to receive requests in their trusted application, the system reduces the risk of payment misdirection and push-payment fraud.
For customers in arrears, Request to Pay provides a more secure, efficient and structured way to communicate than phone calls or texts.
TT: What benefits does Request to Pay offer billers?
JB: By offering customers more options, billers gain earlier visibility into payer intentions, improving customer experience and enabling more effective arrears management. The service captures richer interaction data, which can be integrated with a telecom’s CRM to refine communication strategies and segment customers based on payment behaviours.
Request to Pay also delivers improved cash flow transparency and operational efficiencies through automated, digitised bill presentment and collection. It establishes a secure, trusted ecosystem for two-way bill-related communication, helping reduce accidental payment misdirection and push payment fraud.
Early adopters can differentiate themselves in a competitive market, potentially attracting and retaining customers through better billing experience and service innovation.
TT: Where does Mastercard expect demand for Request to Pay to come from?
JB: This solution will particularly help individuals struggling to meet payments. Our research found that 44% of people reported their financial situation worsened over the past year, causing them to miss multiple bills, and 72% of billers reported an increase in bill disputes over the same period.
People paid irregularly—such as gig-economy workers—will also benefit, since Request to Pay lets them negotiate and manage payments in a way that aligns with irregular income patterns.
The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption across all age groups, so more customers now expect flexible, digital payment options. That shift in expectations makes Request to Pay timely and relevant.
TT: When will Request to Pay come to market?
JB: Our next step is a pilot focused on education for billers. I’ve been presenting at industry events to help billers understand Request to Pay’s principles. We plan to run a pilot in the first half of 2022 with several large, well-known billers, and the telecoms sector is a key target where we are already engaged with multiple providers.
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