Temenos teams-up with Mastercard to expand Request to Pay services in UK

Cloud banking platform, Temenos, is partnering with Mastercard to accelerate the take-up of its Request to Pay (R2P) service among UK banks.

R2P enables billers to request and manage a payment for a bill digitally in real-time, rather than just sending an invoice. The payer receives a digital request via their banking app, which, if approved, triggers a payment order that is submitted to their bank and executed via a preferred route.  

With R2P still in the early stages of roll-out, Temenos claims that the partnership will make it easier, faster, and cheaper for financial institutions to introduce the service for its clients.

Mastercard research found that one in ten people in the UK often forget to pay their bills, resulting in late payments, and one in five do not feel in control of the outgoings from their accounts. Temenos says R2P can give customers more options and flexibility to settle their bills.

“The race is now on to take advantage of Request to Pay driven market opportunities, where both billers and payers demand easy to use solutions embedded into the service offerings from their banks,” said Mick Fennell, Business Line Director, Temenos Payments. “Working with Mastercard, the Temenos Request to Pay solution will enable banks to quickly seize and develop these opportunities, building a competitive edge in fulfilling market demand for efficient, reliable, and cost-effective execution of the service.”

Temenos expects the potential to be large, with the UK’s recurring bill market estimated at over six billion transactions. The firm also wants to target the large number of ad-hoc bills for non-recurring items like car repairs and decorating services, which UK Finance estimates at around 30bn bills annually.

“When paying bills, people value choice, control and flexibility with the added convenience of having all their bills in one place for a smooth day-to-day money management experience,” added Frode Asheim, EVP of Bill Pay at Mastercard.

“The participation of banks and other FI’s is essential to the success of Request to Pay, and by working with partners like Temenos, we can accelerate adoption in the market.”