Federal Reserve System and Business Payments Coalition Announce Two Industry Efforts to Propel B2B Payments Toward Modernization

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Federal Reserve and the Business Payments Coalition (BPC) today announced 73 organizations have joined an industry effort to stand up an operational pilot exchange framework to enable businesses of all kinds to exchange electronic invoices (e-invoices). Another 42 organizations will strive to assess whether a similar exchange framework can facilitate electronic delivery of remittance information across all payment types.

The E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot and the Remittance Delivery Assessment Work Group are two industry efforts aimed at catalyzing the modernization of business-to-business (B2B) payments in the United States. The commitment to these work efforts by organizations across the industry is evidence that there is a real desire to modernize B2B payment processes. Digital payments and processes benefit businesses through lower costs, better cash management, error reduction, risk mitigation, increased transparency and improved efficiency.

“The Federal Reserve could not be more thrilled about the tremendous talent and expertise across the payments industry committed to creating a more efficient, end-to-end payment process,” said Shonda Clay, executive vice president and chief of customer and industry engagement, who leads the Federal Reserve’s payments improvement strategy. “This innovative work will catalyze B2B payments modernization and shape the future of the payments industry.”

E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot

E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot participants will work to advance the development, testing, implementation and interim oversight of the U.S. e-invoice exchange framework. The participants have extensive experience or expertise in sending, accepting, or processing corporate invoices, knowledge of e-invoice exchange frameworks, open-source tools, access points and/or registry services. The market pilot will run through year-end 2022 to establish an operational B2B invoice exchange framework for the U.S. market in 2023.

Remittance Delivery Assessment Work Group

Remittance Delivery Assessment Work Group participants will help determine the viability of a framework to support the exchange of electronic remittance information across all payment types. The participants have a broad range of experience or expertise in remittance and payment processing and posting, and remittance information delivery processes. This group’s work from September 2021 through mid-2022 will leverage the progress and momentum generated by the BPC to transform the delivery of electronic remittance information. The success of the work group will be integral to advancing creative, solution-oriented approaches to efficiently deliver and accept electronic remittance information for B2B payments in the United States.

The E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot and Remittance Delivery Assessment Work Group will continue to drive innovation and adoption of electronic B2B payments processes in the United States. To stay informed of the progress of both initiatives, visit BusinessPaymentsCoalition.org and FedPaymentsImprovement.org, and join the FedPayments Improvement Community to be among the first to hear about the latest payments improvement announcements.

About the Federal Reserve and Payments

As the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve System provides payment services and seeks to foster the stability, integrity and efficiency of the nation’s monetary, financial and payment systems. In 2013, the Federal Reserve initiated a broadly collaborative effort to enhance the end-to-end speed, security and efficiency of payments in the United States. The 2015 Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System paper defined five desired outcomes and strategies for pursuing advancements in speed, security, efficiency and international payments through stakeholder collaboration. For more information, visit FedPaymentsImprovement.org.

About the Business Payments Coalition

The Business Payments Coalition (BPC) is a volunteer group of organizations and individuals working together to promote greater adoption of electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments, remittance data, and invoices. The BPC’s wide-ranging goal is to make B2B electronic payments more efficient across the end-to-end process, that is, to achieve straight-through-processing across both the procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles. The BPC accomplishes this objective by addressing problems and barriers that make it difficult for businesses to use electronic alternatives to paper checks, remittance data and invoices. For more information, visit businesspaymentscoalition.org.