The speed of business is increasing exponentially, and an efficient, end-to-end payment process is non-negotiable in keeping pace. In this highly digital landscape, the Federal Reserve is coordinating with the industry to propel business-to-business (B2B) payments toward modernized solutions, where businesses receive and process transactions from the invoice through payment, remittance and reconciliation with little to no manual intervention.
As part of this work, the Federal Reserve recently hosted a webinar, “Modernizing B2B Payments: The Time for Digitalization is Now“, where attendees had the opportunity to hear from Shonda Clay, Chief of Customer and Industry Engagement, Federal Reserve Financial Services and Guy Berg, Vice President of the Payments, Standards and Outreach Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on the vision, benefits and opportunities for advancing innovation and modernization of B2B payments.
Shonda Clay kicked off the 60-minute webinar by highlighting the Fed’s commitment to improving the U.S. payment system and the notable impact that collaboration with diverse payment stakeholders has had on realizing the Fed’s vision for implementing safe, ubiquitous real-time payments – while simultaneously enhancing the safety, efficiency and resiliency of the U.S. payment system.
“We are energized and dedicated to achieving greater end-to-end efficiency and electronic processing of business invoices, payments and remittance information – all key outcomes envisioned for this payments improvement strategy.”
Shonda Clay
Chief of Customer and Industry Engagement
Federal Reserve Financial Services
Clay highlighted exciting progress made on this journey, noting that such momentum positions businesses and the U.S. payment system to evolve alongside the dynamic technological, transactional, and informational changes that our society and the global economy are experiencing at an increasingly rapid pace. Clay and Guy Berg described the evolution of B2B payments that is underway and revealed the various benefits that such transformation brings to businesses that shift to electronic business payments.
Berg emphasized that industry collaboration is a key factor in catalyzing this transformation and moving the industry forward in its drive to digitalize B2B payments. Noting the Business Payment Coalition’s foundational work in pioneering such modernization, he outlined a path forward for advancing B2B payments modernization. In particular, Berg noted several forthcoming industry work groups and an E-Invoice Exchange Market Pilot that will provide opportunity for interested stakeholders to further define the transformation in B2B payments and position their organizations to be early adopters of the e-invoice exchange framework.
If you missed the webinar or would like a refresher on B2B payments modernization, listen to the recording below.
Have a question on the webinar? Email us at fedpaymentsimprovement@chi.frb.org. Stay up to date on the latest B2B payments modernization news by following us on LinkedIn (Off-site) and Twitter (Off-site).