Pay.UK’s Answer Pay And Mastercard Execute Successful First Transaction

British payments firm Pay.UK’s Answer Pay service and new enrollee Mastercard have successfully completed their first post-testing transaction involving Answer Pay’s “Request to Pay” service, Answer Pay announced on Thursday (Sept. 17).

Request to Pay is designed to make it easier for consumers to communicate with companies from which they have received bills and then pay those bills from their bank accounts, all in one session. The communication can be electronic, covering areas such as whether the customer can pay less than the full amount sought, or can be made through a human being.

In today’s announcement, Peter Cornforth, commercial director at Answer Pay, said: “We are moving quickly to ensure that payment services providers and their customers can benefit from a robust Request to Pay platform. Following the launch of our certified repository in June, we are pleased to partner with Mastercard for the first live Request to Pay transactions. The completion of Answer Pay’s first live transaction is a significant milestone in the accessibility of new revenue streams for payment service providers supporting cash collection.”

Dick Paul, vice president of real-time payment applications at Mastercard, added: “Completing the first transaction is another important landmark in the rollout of our Request to Pay solution in the U.K. Consumers and businesses are increasingly making use of faster, easier and more intuitive ways to pay and get paid. Request to Pay offers huge advantages from enhanced communication and flexibility between participants, to speed and transparency of bill payments.”

When Mastercard nearly a year ago announced the deal that has now been fully implemented, Gregor Dobbie, chief executive of Vocalink, a Mastercard company, said: “Our Request to Pay solution is a new payment application that delivers significant benefits for all involved – consumers, businesses and banks – providing more flexibility, speed and transparency of bill payments. It is designed to accelerate Mastercard’s strategy of offering choice to customers, digitizing all forms of payments, making life simple, seamless and secure for everyone. It has the potential to change the way we settle our day-to-day bills.”