Bank of New York Mellon has created new software called Vaia that is intended to help its clients handle payments more efficiently.
The platform, which was co-developed with the financial technology company Veritutity, handles payment processes for consumer disbursements such as claim payments, class action settlements and investment distributions.
BNY Mellon's U.S.-based institutional clients will be able to convert from check and Automated Clearing House payments to a wider range of options, including the Clearing House's RTP, same-day ACH, tokenized payments with Zelle and debit cards.
The goal is to increase efficiency for clients and help the environment by using less paper, according to Carl Slabicki, co-head of global payments and treasury services at BNY Mellon.
"We want to help clients digitize their business, get off paper checks, move to more efficient, electronic, secure ways of paying the people they need to, and help them offer their payees a better experience," Slabicki said. "That is how we can future-proof their business — by helping lead our clients down that journey. We want to use this, from a treasury services perspective, to grow our business and grow our market share."
BNY Mellon currently processes about $3 trillion daily in U.S. dollars and other currencies through its wire business, Slabicki said. The company processes more than 500 million ACH payments per year and more than 300 million check payments per year.
Vaia can send disbursements and communications using clients' branding to their payees, and verify payee identities and accounts end to end. BNY Mellon partnered with Verituity through the financial institution's inaugural Accelerator Program, designed to help the bank collaborate with start-ups, to create Vaia.
Verituity, of McLean, Virginia, uses machine learning to offer payment options that align with payors' and payee preferences. The fintech also collects and verifies the required payment account information.
"I think one thing that can't be undermined too much is the no-code/low-code approach that commercial clients are looking for," said Verituity Chief Operating Officer Chris Smith. "They are struggling with technology resources, so our goal is to make sure that we're doing all the heavy lifting … that it's a very straightforward, simple onboarding."
Slabicki said BNY Mellon and Verituity began working on Vaia earlier this year, and communicated with clients throughout development. Using Vaia, companies can send payment instructions to BNY Mellon in a single format for thousands of businesses and individual payees. Vaia can send files via Secure File Transfer Protocol, real-time API connection and manual import of files.
BNY Mellon also plans to add Venmo and Paypal as payment options on Vaia next year, Slabicki said. Vaia will also expand capabilities to support cross-border payments in the future.
