Fintech rewrites consumer payment playbook

Austin-based AppBrilliance is giving consumers a new way to pay. Taking elements from the Federal Reserve's faster payments initiative and Zelle and Venmo peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfer schemes, the company said it developed a safe, cost-effective alternative to paying by cash, check or credit card. C. Eric Smith, chief executive officer and co-founder of AppBrilliance, calls the new payments scheme a Push-to-Business (P2B) payment model.

"We're at a pivotal moment in payments as alternatives to debit and credit payments are booming, and businesses and consumers are actively shopping for alternatives," Smith said in a statement. "We believe that P2B is the future of non-card payments, bringing the best features of secure contactless mobile payments without the underlying costs associated with running those transactions over debit or credit rails."

Steve Mott, a payments veteran who recently joined AppBrilliance as a strategic advisor, agreed that it is a refreshing alternative to exorbitant processing fee structures. "AppBrilliance is breaking into a highly contested market that is dominated by heavyweights looking to defend the status quo at all costs—and at the expense of merchants and consumers," Mott said, adding that he is excited to join a tech startup that is reshaping merchant services.

Patented technology

Smith noted that AppBrilliance uses Money API, a patented technology designed to deliver a better consumer payment experience. Unlike other account transfer schemes that rely on the automated clearing house (ACH) to transfer funds between parties, AppBrilliance uses a non-custodial direct-payment API to enable instant and secure account-to-account "push" payments to consumers' favorite businesses.

P2B payments technology leverages the P2P payment rails in place today that are accessible to more than 100 million U.S. account holders through their bank. In addition, AppBrilliance doesn't manage or store sensitive consumer data, Mott pointed out. P2B features and functionality are further detailed in a white paper titled, Profiting from Payments: Empowering Consumers and Businesses with Push-to-Business Payments (P2B).

In the document, the company shares its five-point value proposition, encouraging payments industry stakeholders to establish alternative payments ecosystems, using the following blueprint:

• Remove intermediaries: Provide direct money movement, bypassing intermediary toll-takers.
• Reduce transaction risk: Allow good funds to be credited instantly, reducing transaction risk.
• Reduce overhead: Materially lower payment acceptance costs for businesses of all sizes.
• Improve transparency: Inform users of how data and credentials are used, stored, and monetized.
• Diversify payments acceptance: Support myriad forms of stored value and credit schemes.

Smith noted that ecommerce bank-to-bank account transfer transactions rapidly scaled during COVID-19 due to the critical need for cost-effective payment rails, adding that he expects P2B payments to continue to grow by leveraging widespread consumer adoption of P2P at the bank level and unify these capabilities within an open, flexible alternative payment ecosystem.

"Today, AppBrilliance is proposing the ultimate alternative payment solution for our times; P2B (Push-to-Business) Payments," AppBrilliance researchers wrote. "P2P enables real-time, virtually non-interruptible, consumer-pushed payment modes that accommodate a growing numer of new business and revenue models.

For more information and a full copy of the research study, visit: www.appbrilliance.com/profiting-from-payments/

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