Request-to-Pay and new payment rails. 6 chapters and a final quiz.

Chapter 1. The Request-to-Pay concept and SRTP.

Request-to-Pay (RtP) is a message exchange in which the payee requests a payment from the payer, who accepts or declines it. Recurring payments have long relied on the “pull” model: the payer signs a mandate, and the payee then pulls funds from the payer’s account on dates the payee sets. RtP moves the decision to the other end of the chain. The request goes to the payer, who chooses to pay now, pay later, pay a different amount, or decline. The payment is then pushed, typically as an instant credit transfer.

SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) at a glance

In Europe, RtP has a standardized framework, SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP), published by the European Payments Council (EPC), the body that also manages the SCT and SDD rulebooks. The EPC released version 1.0 of the rulebook on November 30, 2020, and it took effect on June 15, 2021. Adherence opened on May 5, 2021. The scheme uses ISO 20022 messages and, like SCT and SDD, is a voluntary scheme open to eligible providers.

Chapter 2. Request-to-Pay vs. SEPA direct debit.

SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) is the European scheme under which a payee holding a signed mandate debits the payer’s account on each due date. RtP and direct debit meet the same need: both collect payments without the payer having to re-enter a payment each time. But they split power and risk between the two parties in opposite ways.

Moving from pull to push changes the economics of collection for the payee. RtP reduces non-payments and return fees, improves cash flow (funds arrive immediately rather than on the due date), and strengthens reconciliation thanks to the reference carried in the request. The catch is that the payer still has to be persuaded to act every cycle. Recurring consents address this. They authorize automatic payment below a set limit, bringing RtP close to the convenience of direct debit without giving up control.

Chapter 3. Request-to-Pay use cases.

An RtP use case is defined by the payee issuing the request, the channel that carries it to the payer, and the moment it is sent. The mechanics stay the same across cases: request, decide, push the payment. That consistency explains the scheme’s versatility: it serves an energy supplier billing millions of households just as well as a tradesperson sending a customer an invoice. The areas described below are where the contrast with direct debit and cards is sharpest.

Actual RtP adoption is a separate question from its potential. The scheme is still young. It will spread only with a critical mass of payers who can use it and a frictionless journey. Direct debit requires nothing from the payer once the mandate is signed, while RtP requires approval for every request. That approval puts the payer in control but also slows adoption, because it is a repeated effort. Successful deployments reduce the effort to a minimum: a clear notification, one-tap approval in the banking app, and recurring consent for regular bills.

Chapter 4. Wero and EPI: Request-to-Pay at scale.

Wero is the payment wallet meant to bring RtP to consumers across continental Europe. It belongs to the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a consortium of major banks and payment providers including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, and ING. EPI was set up to build a pan-European payment solution independent of the US card schemes. A standardized scheme reaches payers only through the app that distributes it, and Wero plays that role for its member banks’ customers.

Wero’s roadmap has three stages. P2P comes first, as the simplest and most viral use case, followed by e-commerce, and finally Request-to-Pay for recurring payments (subscriptions, installments). Everything rests on instant credit transfers (SCT Inst). Wero positions itself as an experience and messaging layer, including RtP, on top of the pan-European instant payment rail.

The regulatory foundation: instant credit transfers and Verification of Payee

Verification of Payee (VoP) compares the payee name entered by the payer with the name on the destination IBAN. The check happens before the transfer is approved. Once pushed, funds are final and cannot be clawed back the way a direct debit can be disputed. VoP puts a safeguard ahead of execution against credit transfer fraud: fake suppliers, CEO fraud, APP fraud. Instant credit transfers deliver fast execution, VoP the upfront check, and RtP the payer’s control.

Chapter 5. VRPs in the UK: sweeping and commercial.

A Variable Recurring Payment (VRP) is a programmable, capped mandate under which the payer authorizes a provider to initiate variable payments within limits the payer sets. The UK, an open banking pioneer, built it as a close cousin of RtP. The long-term consent given to the provider is bounded by limits set by the payer: a maximum per payment, a cap per period, and a frequency. VRP sits between direct debit and card-on-file payments and runs on bank payment initiation (A2A).

Sweeping VRP automatically moves money between a person’s own accounts. Live since 2022 and mandated for the nine largest banks under UK open banking, it has proven the mechanism works at real-world volumes. By mid-2025, VRPs already accounted for about 16% of open banking transactions in the UK, driven mainly by sweeping. The next step is commercial VRP (cVRP), which pays a third party and competes head-on with direct debit and card-on-file payments.

cVRP matters to the rest of Europe because it delivers, in the UK market, what RtP and Wero promise on the continent: a controlled, capped account-to-account payment as an alternative to cards. The vocabulary differs (VRP in the UK, RtP and recurring consent in the SEPA area), and so do the regulatory building blocks, but the direction is the same. Both markets want to make credit transfers as controllable as a card on file, without the interchange cost.

Chapter 6. Rail comparison and outlook.

Request-to-Pay, VRP, instant credit transfers, direct debit, and cards are rails built on different logics, and each optimizes for one dimension: payer control, cost to the merchant, finality, or friction. Optimizing for one comes at the expense of the others. Direct debit buys the convenience of the mandate with delayed finality and a broad refund right; cards buy universal acceptance with interchange. So the choice of rail is made use case by use case, depending on which dimension matters most.

Three forces will shape the decade, starting with the shift from pull to push. As instant credit transfers become universal and safe (VoP), use cases historically served by cards and direct debit come within reach of A2A. Next is the messaging layer (RtP, collect request, cVRP), which makes push as controllable as pull, without its costs. The third force is sovereignty: Wero, the digital euro, and the IPR are laying out an independent European infrastructure. Request-to-Pay sits where these three forces meet, providing the request layer that makes push usable for bills and subscriptions.