Mastercard rolls out Payment on Delivery solution

Mastercard has unveiled Payment on Delivery, a new solution allowing businesses to pay a supplier in real time when receiving goods or services.

The company is piloting the program with PNC Bank, which leverages the RTP network from The Clearing House for real-time payments clearing and settlement capabilities. Mastercard will roll this out to industries with complex distribution networks and supply chains, solving several challenges such as onerous paperwork, manual processes, and complicated reconciliation largely driven by the use of cash and checks.

The first use-case will center on alcohol distribution. Mastercard will partner with enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider Rutherford & Associates to facilitate payments in the regulation-ridden wine and spirits distribution industry.

With Payment on Delivery, suppliers receive instant access to funds and rich information associated with the transaction, leading to better insights into cash flow. Both buyers and suppliers can improve operational efficiency through easy reconciliation and can eliminate any risk that comes from carrying or storing cash or checks.

Payment on Delivery is part of the Mastercard Track portfolio of business applications, which taps into real-time payment messaging capabilities so that the suppliers’ bank can push a “request-for-payment” directly to the business, and the business can pay immediately – on delivery – with instant reconciliation on the backend. Mastercard plans to partner with ERP providers and banks to expand distribution and adoption of this solution in the US.