Page 17 - MUFG Spring 2021

originate ACH payments to suppliers and vendors while working remotely.
Online and mobile banking capabilities enable A/P employees to gather approvals and initiate ACH payments even when they can’t access the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
NEW, FASTER PAYMENT OPTIONS
As companies seek electronic alternatives to paper-based payment processing, a couple
emerging options offer even greater speed and efficiency and should be considered for certain use cases.
The RTP® network, the real-time payment system from The Clearing House, allows funds to be sent directly from a company’s accounts at financial institutions to both businesses and consumers — around the clock, any day of the week. Beneficiaries receive payments within seconds of the sending bank initiating the transaction. RTP delivers rich payment data and offers messaging capabilities that enable such functionality as dynamic discounting in a
business-to-business (B2B) relationship, and payers are notified immediately when beneficiaries receive payment.
Zelle® is a payment service that allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money using just a U.S. mobile phone number or email address. Primarily a person-to-person (P2P) payment channel, Zelle is increasingly being used for business-to-consumer (B2C) payments such as insurance claim payments and utility refunds to homeowners. Zelle payments typically settle over the ACH network, but it is expected that by the end of 2020 Zelle will be employed as an app to enable these convenient payments to be settled over the RTP network.
RTP and Zelle are examples of the growing diversity of electronic payment types, which offer a business continuity benefit: If something goes awry and one electronic option is unavailable, a company can turn to another appropriate digital alternative to avoid any interruption of payments.
AN ARRAY OF CARD SOLUTIONS
Commercial cards offer another efficient electronic alternative to paper checks, with the added bonus of generating working capital for payers by extending payment terms.
Traditional plastic commercial cards can be used in emergencies to make timely payments without first having to process them through the company’s A/P system. At the same time, they provide enough detail and control to allow for allocation, reconciliation and audit. Additionally, card program management systems offer instant scalability by allowing the program manager to quickly issue new cards online when a crisis demands it.
Banks also offer ePayables (or “virtual”) card programs that enable authorized A/P employees to originate card payments online using a unique card number for each payment. Like all of the electronic payments options cited here, ePayables card payments are relatively
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SPRING 2021 / MUFG TRANSACTION BANKING AMERICAS GROUP