Fintech firm Bottomline Technologies enhances its Digital Banking product with the addition of a Real-Time Payments module.

Bottomline real-time payments are essential these days to a bank’s competitiveness, particularly in the enterprise arena. Bottomline’s innovation will enable corporate customers to send and receive real-time payments and as well, request payments.

Real-time payments: Banks, ignore at your peril

“Banks that are not taking steps to offer real-time payments to their business clients are at risk of losing valuable revenue, specifically to competitor banks that are able to clearly articulate the value of real-time payments as part of an effective and efficient payments strategy.” [Erika Baumann, Analyst, Aite Group]

Bottomline is building on its client base of banks that actively use its services for both domestic and international payments.

Secondly, the new offering is a B2B focussed product. It will allow banks and their customers to handle transactions more effectively.

Bottomline’s application is with messaging

Real-time payments has a focus on ‘conversational messaging,’ according to Norm Deluca, Managing Director of Payment Solutions. Combined with richer transaction information it deepens customer engagement by offering the speed and certainty of faster payments, he says.

It also affords more frictionless business-to-business interactions, through the Bottomline digital banking application.

Bottomline and Revolut

Earlier this month, fast-growing digital challenger bank and fintech unicorn Revolut tied up with Bottomline for the latter’s Universal Aggregator solution.

Bottomline’s Universal Aggregator presents new financial services organizations with real-time connectivity that helps them access UK’s Faster Payments Scheme directly.

Soon customers will be able to access and process one-off 24/7 real-time payments through Revolut’s digital financial services platform.

In June, Bottomline also formed an alliance with digital bank Starling to launch real-time payments. Like with Revolut, the service will be 24/7 and allows banks to send and receive payments.

[Related Story: Challenger bank Revolut launches 3-D secure payments for online transactions    ]