Mastercard has enrolled in the Pay.UK framework for its Request to Pay solution in the UK.

Request to Pay will provide more options and flexibility to settle bills between businesses and individuals, whether for mortgage repayments, utility and telecoms bills, or council tax payments. It will provide the payer with the options to pay in full, in part, request additional time to make a payment or decline to pay and begin a dialogue with the requester.

Mastercard’s Request to Pay, which has been developed in partnership with Exela Technologies, claims improved communication between billers and payers, reduces the number of late payments, and it is estimated it could save billers £1.3 billion per year.

Paul Horlock, chief executive of Pay.UK, stated: “Mastercard’s enrolment is another significant leap forward for what is set to become a fast growing market of Request to Pay services.

"Direct Debit and other payment options as part of a suite of tools to give users the control they need over how and when they pay, all while reducing reconciliation costs for billers."

Mastercard’s solution will allow people to communicate directly with their biller, using an in-app chat feature, to query an unusual or unexpected bill before the payment is made, or make alternative payment arrangements.

Typically, the service translates the payment request into a credit transfer once the payer has approved and authenticated the payment. This reduces the risk of error compared to if the payer had to enter the requester’s payment information manually and also reduces the risk of authorised push payment fraud.

Request to Pay draws on Mastercard’s existing expertise in the US where it has already launched the comprehensive Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange that links to The Clearing House’s faster payments infrastructure and is built with technology from Vocalink, a Mastercard company.

Request to Pay will be the first solution that Mastercard will deploy into Microsoft Azure Cloud, and it will benefit from the resiliency of cloud architecture and allow Mastercard to scale up the solution as the demand increases.

In May, rival payments giant Visa facilitated the first Request to Pay message sent and received using Pay.UK’s standards.

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