BNY Mellon today announced that it has launched a first-of-its-kind real-time electronic bill (e-bill) and payment solution. Displacing the inefficient and antiquated process historically used to handle the majority of the 15 billion bills paid in the U.S. annually, this pioneering capability enables U.S. businesses to present digital bills to their consumer clients in real-time and receive instant payment via the consumers’ preferred online and mobile banking channels.

This transformational solution promises significant change by delivering ubiquitous 24/7/365 digital capabilities that will improve their end-to-end payment interactions. Businesses can leverage real-time integrated messaging through application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide instant, end-to-end straight through processing from bill-presentment to payment to reconciliation. Banks can also leverage this solution for their own clients via BNY Mellon’s white-label offering. These e-bills will be sent over the RTP^® network operated by The Clearing House.

The key advantages for billers include higher straight through processing levels, faster collections, simplified reconciliation, increased transparency and lower costs. Their consumer clients gain greater convenience, transparency and control of their cash flow. Additionally, e-bill technology represents a substantial advance in efforts to protect the environment, diminishing the negative impacts of paper-based processes. 

“Innovation in the bill-pay space is long overdue, and BNY Mellon’s e-bill solution is the transformative technology that will drive this change and improve the client experience. Our early-adoption and leadership in real-time payments and comprehensive digital payables and receivables uniquely positions us to immediately support clients’ digital-billing needs, providing both e-bill and instantaneous payment capability,” says Mike Bellacosa, Global Head of Payments and Transaction Services for Treasury Services at BNY Mellon. “This comes at a time when automation and efficiency are higher priorities than ever for clients and consumers alike. We are thrilled to once again be at the cutting edge of these offerings – and anticipate widespread adoption of this new solution in the coming months and years.”

As it continues to grow in popularity, the solution will be particularly appealing to the businesses where bill volumes are greatest and there is a need to quickly and efficiently issue and collect payments – including utilities, credit card companies, cable, internet, and cell phone providers. More broadly, these capabilities have the potential to disrupt the e-commerce and point-of-sale experiences in the future, as well as the associated interchange expenses incurred by large U.S. billers and merchants.

As the originator of the first ever RTP transaction in 2017, and the first bank to provide Request for Payment (RFP) messaging capabilities in 2018, BNY Mellon is a pioneer in the real-time payments and digital payments space. Leveraging the expanding RTP network-wide infrastructure, the new e-bill offering will reach millions of consumers across the U.S. – and BNY Mellon is actively collaborating with multiple billers and retail banks to drive the adoption of this new functionality. BNY Mellon’s production pilots will continue this year, with plans to scale more broadly into 2022.