The ways businesses, consumers, and even banks make payments are changing, as technologies like realtime payments and APIs make it easier to send money across the globe. But one technology seems curiously absent from recent payment innovation, and that’s blockchain.
“We think blockchain technology will streamline payments, but in practice there are very few open pilots for new asset classes,” Jason Moens, vice president for international payment solutions provider Flywire, told Bank Innovation.
Flywire today announced a partnership for cross-border B2B payments with accounts-receivable solutions provider, BillTrust.
BillTrust currently provides accounts receivable solutions to more than 1,000 businesses worldwide. Its partnership with Flywire will allow businesses to transact with each other without needing to turn to more cumbersome, ancient international payment solutions, like a wire transfer.
Nick Babinsky, vice president of payment strategy for BillTrust, was equally lukewarm regarding the potential applications of blockchain for payments, especially as that could require transacting digital tokens.
“We’re not seeing a lot of client demand to take on bitcoin because of the volatility,” Babinsky said, adding that the company is “certainly observing” the technology closely. “If we can offer a more seamless ability to businesses [with blockchain], we’re certainly willing to fulfill that demand,” he said.
Of course, bitcoin and blockchain are separate solutions, but they’ve never quite managed to separate themselves in the public eye—and often, new payment initiatives take on cryptocurrency before turning to blockchain (like Square, added the ability to process bitcoin transactions in its Cash app late last year.) Square’s approach to the technology might be the exception for payment providers, per its earnings today.
Blockchain technology remains more of a curiosity in the consumer payment space as well, at least according to Richard Kang, senior vice president for Prism Money, a service that provides bill payment and tracking for consumers.
While Kang also noted that banks should move a little faster when it comes to innovating their bill payment systems, he did not put forth blockchain as a possible solution, and indeed, banks that are experimenting with blockchain don’t seem to be putting those pilots towards consumer payments: take JPMorgan Chase and its recent tests for Quorum.
As with Babinsky and businesses, Kang admitted consumers are definitely expecting faster, more efficient payments, he said.
“Our perspective is that consumer choice and expectations are changing,” he said, especially when it comes to bill payment, where consumers are “heading straight to Verizon or other [billers] to pay,” rather than using banks as an intermediary, he said.
But is blockchain the solution to keeping those bill payers at the bank? Like most questions regarding the technology, the answer to that question appears to be, “not yet.”






