Société Générale Kicks Off Corporate Instant Payment Service

Société Générale launches an Instant Payment service for their corporate customers.

Goals: streamline money transfer processes for businesses in several contexts.
This service is available 24/7 as an option, allowing customers to complete irrevocable account-to-account payments within less than 10 seconds.
How it works
- The customer chooses a recipient from the Sogecash Net app.
- The transaction is conducted within less than 10 seconds.
- The beneficiary receives a notification.
- His account is credited, he may use the transferred amount right away.
Business Model: Société Générale charges €0.60 (excl. VAT) per transaction, vs €0.21 for typical SEPA credit transfers.
Several possible applications:
- Payrolls,
- Payments to suppliers,
- Settling insurance claims within seconds,
- Instantly fix incorrect payments.
Transfers may not exceed €15,000 per transaction, within a daily limit defined for the operation.

Meet corporates’ expectations. According to a survey by Redbridge, most of the interrogated companies deem that instant credit transfer will be of interest for payment collections and disbursements. This means of payment is expected by all types of businesses.
Société Générale chooses to enter a market segment where Instant Payments seem to have the most value, and where the business model is best identified. In all European countries having already adopted Instant Payments, institutions charge fees for these services to businesses, while they tend to be free in the BtoC sector.
Obstacles to service adoption. Instant credit transfers are limited to €15,000, which could make it of less interest for optimising cash flow or sending high amounts to suppliers. The applied cost may also hamper adoption levels.

Société Générale has been featuring Instant Payment for individual customers for several months. They hope their BtoB option could become as successful.
BPCE pioneered when rolling out Instant Payment for individual and corporate customers. Other banks, including Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas are expected to roll out their BtoB services by the end of the year.
This means of payment has been gaining momentum among corporate customers. The wholesale group Metro just announced they intended to let their customers pay via instant credit transfer instead of direct debits. They believe, it would allow them to reduce the risk of unpaid bills by at least 30%. Issues remain for this group, e.g.: choosing a relevant technical solutions and prompting customers to using them. They also plan to be able to initiate Instant Payments on behalf of their customers, in partnership with a PISP. In this case, the customer would be sent a text message from his bank, asking to validate a transaction initiated by a third party.

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