CBI has launched a Request to Pay service for corporate users through participating payment service providers, extending its existing collaboration with EBA CLEARING and Nexi.
The service allows businesses to send structured digital payment requests from their enterprise systems to customers in Italy and across the Single Euro Payments Area. Customers receive the requests through internet and mobile banking apps and can complete payment without entering details manually.
The service builds on infrastructure already used for payments to the Italian Public Administration, giving CBI a live operating model for the wider corporate market.
The launch brings Request to Pay more directly into business collection processes, where companies are seeking quicker settlement, clearer due-date management and fewer manual steps. By separating the payment request from the final payment authorisation, the model is designed to give payers greater visibility into what is being requested and by whom.
For corporates, the service is also intended to support automated reconciliation with accounting systems. This can reduce paper-based workflows and cut operating costs linked to manual collection processes.
How it works
The service is being offered through CBI's community of payment service providers, using EBA CLEARING's R2P infrastructure and Nexi's technology. Its cross-border element is significant because it gives Italian providers a way to serve customers beyond the domestic market using the same payment messaging framework.
Request to Pay is a messaging service rather than a payment instrument. A biller or business sends a digital request, and the customer then decides whether to authorise payment through their banking channel.
That distinction is becoming increasingly relevant in the European payments market, where banks and payment groups are trying to digitise invoicing and collections without removing payer control. The model can also reduce errors because payment data is pre-filled rather than re-entered by the customer.
Liliana Fratini Passi, Managing Director of CBI, set out the rationale for the corporate launch.
“Bringing Request to Pay to the service of corporates means providing a concrete tool to simplify and enhance the efficiency of collection and payment processes. Based on pan-European standards and real-time message exchange, this solution enables companies to strengthen control, improve traceability and increase the conversion rate of their payment flows, with real-time reporting. In a context where the market is increasingly calling for transparent, secure and controlled interaction models, the Request to Pay service also helps to reinforce trust in the collections and payments ecosystem, offering tangible protection to both consumers and corporates,” said Fratini Passi.
European framework
The service is aligned with European standards and electronic invoicing processes, according to the companies. That could widen the range of use cases for businesses that need to manage cross-border collections and integrate payments more closely with back-office systems.
EBA CLEARING, which operates payment infrastructure used across Europe, said the launch would widen the reach of Request to Pay among business users. Its R2P service has been available since 2020.
“We are proud to collaborate with CBI and the Payment Service Providers it serves to extend the benefits of 'Request to Pay' to new customer segments. Leveraging our R2P Service, Italian PSPs will be able to expand the value-added services they offer to corporates and their customers, both at a national and European level,” said Kulk.
Nexi said the extension into the corporate market fits with efforts to digitise the financial processes businesses use and to link payment initiation more closely with operational systems.
“The extension of Request to Pay to the corporate world, in addition to strengthening our collaboration with two long-standing partners such as CBI and EBA CLEARING, represents a strategic lever to digitalise companies' financial processes and enhance their efficiency and integration,” said Renato Martini, Digital Banking Solutions Director at Nexi Group. “It is a convenient and secure service that, also thanks to our technology, enables more advanced management of payments between businesses and their customers, in line with our mission to provide innovative digital solutions capable of simplifying payment processes”.
CBI also pointed to possible links with other digital payment services, including CBILL, which lets users view and pay bills through banks' and payment service providers' digital channels. The broader aim is to make collection and payment processes between businesses and customers easier to manage, with greater traceability and more predictable cash-flow visibility.
EBA CLEARING processes more than 23 billion payments a year through its infrastructure services.