Request to Pay

Definition

Request to Pay (a payment request), or SRTP under its full EPC name, is a scheme standardised by the European Payments Council (rulebook v1 in November 2020, effective 15 June 2021).

It lets a payee (a merchant, creditor or individual) push a payment request to a payer, who chooses to accept or decline it and then initiates a payment (typically an SCT Inst). It is the request layer that complements the execution layer (SCT / SCT Inst): the request becomes digital, structured and traceable, where previously the payee had to share its account details out of band. SRTP is the building block behind Wero merchant, pay-on-delivery, digital collections and B2B invoicing.

How it works

Five actions make up the scheme: creating the request, delivering it to the payer, the decision (accept, decline, or accept with modification), execution (usually SCT Inst) and confirmation back to the payee.

Technical characteristics

• Messaging: ISO 20022 (pain.013 for the request, pain.014 for the response).
• Transport: open (REST API, AS4, MX message).
• No transfer of funds: SRTP is only the request layer; execution is separate.
• No obligation to accept: the payer stays in control (unlike SDD).
• Multi-channel: web, app, email, QR code, NFC.

EPC architecture

The EPC publishes the rulebook; several routing operators exist (EBA Clearing since 2021, Wero/EPI, private hubs). Adoption is still slow but should accelerate with the IPR (mandatory free SCT Inst in October 2025), the rollout of Wero merchant and merchant pressure to cut acquiring costs.

Use cases

• E-commerce: a "Pay with Wero" or "Pay by Bank" button; an SRTP to the customer's bank, confirmation + SCA, then SCT Inst. Expected merchant cost of 0.1–0.5% versus 1–3% for cards.
• Collections: energy, telecoms and insurers send structured requests instead of email reminders, reducing DSO and reliance on SDD.
• B2B: invoices with SRTP embedded, paid in one click — directly competing with SDD.
• Pay on delivery: real estate, automotive, high-end furniture.
• Advanced P2P: requesting money from a friend without exchanging account details (Wero P2P uses SRTP).

Benefits

• Payee: near-zero cost (SCT Inst), no chargeback (irrevocable), credit in under 10 seconds, reconciliation via an end-to-end ID.
• Payer: authentication in their banking app, control over the decision, no card required.
• Payer PSP: greater customer engagement, with VoP and context built into fraud prevention.

Limits and challenges

• No chargeback-style buyer protection (a B2C barrier).
• Bank coverage still partial.
• Checkout UX must rise to the level of one-click cards.
• Push notifications assume an active banking app.
• Strong inertia from the card ecosystem.

International comparison

The EU lags Brazil and India, but the IPR and Wero are accelerating things.

What Request to Pay is not

• Not a transfer of funds: it is a request; execution is separate.
• Not an SDD direct debit: no prior authorisation, with explicit consent for each request.
• Not mandatory for the payer, who can decline without penalty.
• Not a PSD2 PIS API: SRTP is an inter-PSP scheme, while PIS is an API exposed by ASPSPs — even though the two are converging.
• Not a wallet: Wero uses it as a rail, but SRTP is not a wallet.

In the PSD2 / Open Finance ecosystem

SRTP is the natural complement to the IPR and PIS: PIS initiates on the payer side (via a TPP), while SRTP pushes a request from the payee side (validated in the banking app). The two coexist and can combine — the "Open Banking 2.0" vision: instant, free transfers, push or pull, built into the customer experience.

Concrete examples

• EBA Clearing SRTP: live since 2021, with several dozen participating banks.
• Wero merchant: pushes the payment to the payer at checkout, who responds with an SCT Inst.
• Crédit Agricole / BPCE: 2024–2025 pilots on collections.
• iDEAL (NL): a similar but national model that Wero will gradually replace.
• Pix Cobrança (Brazil): a dynamic QR-code model for merchant payments.
• BNPL: pushing an SRTP for each instalment rather than a direct debit improves UX and success rates.
• B2B: an invoice issued by Pennylane or Sage with SRTP embedded, paid in one click from the bank.