Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JULY 2021 | 41 ments; and a focus on customer insight anddata. The pressure for innovation in pay- ments is both "push" and "pull" – mean- ing it's coming from utilities, which want to increase e• ciencies and generate deeper insight; and from customers, who increas- ingly want to self-serve via digital channels. One major retailer explained they had seen e-billing double over the past 12 months, and it now accounted for 25 per cent of all bills. Another delegate noted that the digitali- sation of collections had historically been underinvested in by utilities, lagging bill- ing. The question for utilities as they look to deployment at scale is which innovations really bene„ t the business and its customers. As one delegate said: "We're running around in the sweetshop trying lots of stu‡ before essentially having to decide, right, this is where we are going to go." Another said: "We're reviewing what we want to keep and what we want to kill." So what drives this decision? For our del- egates, it's based on three factors: cost; what customers want and will actually use; and what will generate most useful insights for the business. A number of delegates suggested cus- tomers would prefer to pay via their own banking app, and combining advances and innovation into what is already a trusted, familiar app resonated with the attendees. Pay.UK's Request to Pay service was refer- enced as a good example of this. "The days of downloading an app for every single thing have gone," commented one delegate. "The trend is to have very simple self-serve." Do these new technologies spell the end of the humble Direct Debit? Not according to our delegates, who felt that Direct Debit would continue to have a place, but that it was not suitable for everyone – for example, for workers in the gig economy or those who simply need " exibility of payments. Overall, while guests at the roundtable felt that meeting current challenges around billings, collections, and debt was supported by payment industry innovation, there was room for further progress, particularly with the „ nancially vulnerable in mind. There was recognition that the current payment pro- cess doesn't work for all, and creating new solutions with the end user „ rmly at their heart would be welcomed. The ball is in the payments industry's court when it comes to proving their worth to customers and busi- ness alike to achieve the scale needed to have a meaningful impact. As we head into the unchartered economic waters beyond coro- navirus government support schemes, there will be plenty of opportunity to do just that. Comment James Bushby Vice president product sales, Mastercard "Request to Pay is a win-win for billers and payers" in association with "We're running around in the sweetshop trying lots of stuff before essentially having to decide, right, this is where we are going to go." "The days of downloading an app for every single thing have gone." A t Mastercard, we believe we have a responsibility to do more than recognise the wide-reaching impact of the global pandemic – we need to work hard to „ nd new ways to support people and businesses alike as the way they make and receive payments has changed over the past year. New technologies have opened up so many possibilities, giving us the opportunity to make payments easier, frictionless – a– er all, payments are the oil that keeps the wheels of commerce turning. But it's easy to get carried away with innovation for the sake of innovation and that's why checking in with our customers is important to us; it's invaluable in informing our plans in the payments space, and the roundtable facilitated by Utility Week underlined our thinking on the needs of paying customers and billers alike. The experiences shared by our roundtable guests chimed with our own extensive research into billing and bill payments in the UK. Existing solutions, like Direct Debit, suit many but don't work for all – those on an irregular income, for example, like gig workers, vulnerable payers, or contractors, need " exibility over outgoings. Of course, people with inconsistent or lower incomes can „ nd themselves caught short and fall into arrears. Not good for them, and not good for billers managing payments. Part of the solution lies in Request to Pay (RtP). Standards for RtP have been developed by Pay.UK, the company responsible for the UK's major payment systems, Bacs (Direct Debit), Faster Payments, and the new cheque Image Clearing System. It's now up to the industry to create technical solutions to meet those standards, and Mastercard was among the „ rst to enrol into Pay.UK's RtP Framework. Simply, RtP is a secure messaging service allowing billers to request payment for goods and services. It also enables billers to open billing-related conversations with customers, potentially resolving arrears issues before they arise, and avoiding the associated costs as well as the time and hassle involved in chasing outstanding payments. For paying customers, RtP o‡ ers " exibility, choice, and control over bill or invoice settlement; it helps those on low or irregular incomes to manage payments or start dialogue with billers to resolve problems with the payment timing or amount. We believe RtP holds the answer to many of the problems faced by billers and their customers, but widespread adoption is key, and we're con„ dent the utilities sector will be quick to lead the way for billers across the country.

• Cover