Today, it is inefficient, costly and overly labor-intensive to process invoices and payment remittance information in the United States. To help address this, the Business Payments Coalition (BPC) and Federal Reserve Financial Services have been working to improve the efficiency of how supporting information for business-to-business (B2B) payments is delivered and processed. As a result of this work, participants in the BPC’s E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot recently formed the Digital Business Networks Alliance (DBNAlliance)(Off-site) as the legal entity to oversee a new electronic exchange network. The network is now available to all businesses via their service providers.
This exchange framework is an electronic delivery network based on a set of technical standards and policies to allow businesses to securely share electronic supply chain documents with one another. It allows for the secure exchange of electronic invoices (e-invoices) between businesses, which is a necessary first step to achieving straight-through processing. Straight-through processing of business payments occurs when there is little to no manual intervention required to process the invoice, payment and associated remittance information.
In its oversight role, DBNAlliance (Off-site) will govern the exchange framework, assist service providers to connect to the exchange framework and define electronic delivery standards, policies, rules and guidelines for e-invoicing.
Establishing this exchange framework to support all payment types is a significant step for the B2B payments ecosystem. Launching DBNAlliance and the exchange framework confirms that now is the time to address B2B payment inefficiencies and realize the benefits of modernized electronic payments.
Vice President of Payments Improvement
Federal Reserve Financial Services
To access the exchange framework, service providers first must join the DBNAlliance. Businesses simply need a service provider that is a member to send and receive e-invoices on their behalf. For more information on how to connect with the DBNAlliance and access the exchange framework, read the full announcement (Off-site).
