"Request to Pay enables us as a bank to offer completely new services," said Thomas Ullrich, the member of DZ Bank's Management Board responsible for Transaction Banking, at the announcement of the PAYCY request-to-pay platform. The cooperative central institution has made it clear from the outset that it not only intends to be closely involved in the further development of the white-label platform, but will also be the first customer.

It is obvious that banks will benefit from the platform. After all, Request to Pay brings the money transfer back to where it originally came from: to a bank's account. What's more, the moment the Request to Pay is received on a customer's account, they already know that a real deal is in the offing. On this basis, banks can, for example, offer additional services such as installment payments before the actual payment is triggered. Driver's seat instead of rearview mirror.

However, emphasizing the advantages of PAYCY from a bank's point of view alone is not enough, says Dr. Thorsten Völkel, CEO of the parent company PPI AG. This is because the new process allows documents to be linked directly to a payment. This can be, for example, the invoice, which is permanently deposited in the bank account and linked to the payment. This facilitates reconciliation later on. But it can also be an insurance policy, for example.

Many possibilities, one procedure: As a customer, I receive a Request to Pay, which I can approve with just a few clicks. If Instant Payments also comes into play, the seller receives his money immediately. The buyer, in turn, is shown all the important information and documents directly on the bank account - centrally and without any annoying paperwork.

Request to Pay is therefore a true win-win-win situation: for banks, companies and consumers. PAYCY offers banks the opportunity to exploit these advantages for themselves and their customers. The demand for this is great: in a survey conducted by PPI together with the Euro Banking Association (EBA), 96 percent of the companies surveyed said they were interested in using Request to Pay.

For more information on this topic, read Dr. Thorsten Völkel's interview with IT-Finanzmagazin (in German):

https://www.it-finanzmagazin.de/request-to-pay-oekosystem-ums-konto-146538/