Future European standard: Cooperative Financial Network launches pilot phase for new payments procedure

"We are delighted to be launching this new service on the market so early, as Request-to-Pay is set to become the new standard in European payment transactions. We are convinced that our competitors, not only in Germany but throughout Europe, will also adopt the European procedure to create rapid coverage,” says Thomas Ullrich, Member of the Board of Managing Directors of DZ BANK.

DZ BANK has already successfully completed the first transaction together with R+V Versicherung, the cooperative IT service provider Atruvia, Volksbank Mittelhessen and the platform operator PAYCY, which is a subsidiary of PPI AG. A Volksbank Mittelhessen customer paid her insurance policy with R+V completely electronically for the first time. To facilitate this, R+V submitted a payment request to DZ BANK, which was sent to Volksbank Mittelhessen via the PAYCY platform. The customer was then able to authorise the payment in her online banking and the entire process took just a few seconds. Another advantage is that all the invoice details are also stored in online banking and can therefore be viewed at any time. Further transactions will follow in the next six months in the pilot phase with eight cooperative banks in order to test the overall process with customers.

"With the launch of Request-to-Pay, R+V is setting a milestone in digital payment transactions together with DZ BANK. With RTP, our customers can pay their insurance premiums easily and conveniently with just one click directly in online banking. We can process RTP payments automatically. We see RTP as a solution for the future, and we are working hard on achieving this as a Cooperative Financial Network,“ says Julia Merkel, Member of the Board of Managing Directors of R+V.

The pilot phase will initially run until the middle of 2024. There are then plans to make the service available to all customers of the cooperative banks, including both corporate and private customers.