Cooperative Financial Network begins tests for new payments procedure

The new Request-to-Pay (RTP) procedure digitalises the entire invoicing process and enables companies to keep administrative tasks and costs to a minimum. This will open up completely new ways of paying in the future. This makes the Cooperative Financial Network one of the first providers in Europe whose customers can pay invoices in this way.

Officials Germany-based DZ BANK said they are happy 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. They are convinced that their competitors, not only in Germany but throughout Europe, will also adopt the European procedure to create rapid coverage.

Testing the future of digital payments

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 of this new solution is that all the invoice details are also stored in online banking and can therefore be viewed at any time. Further transactions will follow by June 2024 in the pilot phase with eight cooperative banks in order to test the overall process with customers.

Representatives from R+V said that with the launch of Request-to-Pay, R+V is setting a milestone in digital payment transactions together with DZ BANK. With RTP, their customers can pay their insurance premiums easily and conveniently with just one click directly in online banking. They can process RTP payments automatically. They see RTP as a solution for the future, and they are working hard on achieving this as a Cooperative Financial Network.

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.