On March 12, 2013, after vetting multiple networks, RBS and RBS Citizens announced that Paymode-X was selected as their settlement network partner. Paymode-X is Bottomline Technologies cloud-based settlement network that currently enables over 200,000 businesses to make and receive secure electronic payments (ePayments).
Just to provide a little background on these organizations. The RBS Group (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group) is a large multinational banking and financial services company serving over 30 million customers in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. RBS Citizens is a subsidiary of RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $128-billion commercial bank holding company that is part of The RBS Group. RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions group provides transaction banking services including cash management, commercial card, and trade finance services to most major industry segments as well as professional services firms. Bottomline Technologies is a provider of cloud-based payment, invoice and banking solutions to corporations, financial institutions and banks around the world. It is under RBS Citizens Treasury Solutions group that the new electronic payments service (called accessPAYMODE-X) will be launched.
accessPAYMODE-X will be linked to the Paymode-X network and will allow RBS Citizens’ clients to convert their costly and often inefficient paper-based payment to electronic payments. According to RBS Citizens, corporate clients using this ACH payables service will actually generate revenue back to them. Vendors that are not already on the network will be enrolled by the Paymode-X on-boarding team.
I had the opportunity to speak with the RBS Citizens team and according to Jim Gifas, Head of Treasury Solutions, “Over the last several years, we’ve been evaluating our solution to ensure that we have the right products and services that our customers need and that can enhance their business and drive efficiencies”. He continues to say, “Paymode-X is a solution that we thought can generate new value, is innovative, creative and is something that our customers can leverage to improve their businesses”. Jim believes (and I very much agree) that B2B payments today are more complex and need to be looked at in a more strategic manner, they involve risk management, IT, supplier relationships, compliance and regulatory requirements. RBS Citizens focuses primarily on the mid-market and businesses of this size really look to their banks for advice and best practices. With Paymode-X RBS Citizens believes its customers will benefit not only from a more efficient payment process but from an increased level of visibility into payment related data which can be valuable to treasury groups.
With this partnership, Paymode-X is adding a global channel partner with RBS and a North American focused partner with RBS Citizens. Both entities will be offering their corporate clients a new ePayment service that is directly linked to the Paymode-X network. The following are some of the features of the Paymode-X network:
- Access Paymode-X provides vendor enrollment services – For e.g., an on-boarding project manager will define and create an outreach program that includes appropriate messaging and communications. Paymode-X also has various features which encourage suppliers to enroll, for e.g., informing a supplier that buyer A, B and C have requested that you join the network.
- Access Paymode-X development team works with buyers and suppliers to create payment file formats that are acceptable to both
- Provides suppliers with robust remittance data – All the data that can be shared from buyer to supplier is shared and suppliers have a choice as to the format they view the data in.
Paymode-X is a fast growing global settlement network that helps businesses transition from paper-based payments to ePayments (and eInvoices) and provides much needed visibility to payment information.
