As digital payments continue to evolve, financial institutions and billers are seeking faster, safer, and more user-friendly ways to move money. One emerging solution gaining traction is Pay By Bank (PBB)—a payment method that enables consumers to authorize transactions directly from their bank accounts using secure, credential-based authentication. Unlike traditional ACH processes, Pay By Bank removes manual entry barriers and enhances both convenience and security, making it an ideal option for modern payment experiences.
What Is Pay By Bank (PBB) and How Does It Work?
Pay By Bank (PBB) is transforming how consumers authorize payments directly from their bank accounts. While it may sound similar to ACH, the experience is far more streamlined and secure. With PBB, consumers don’t need to know or enter their routing or account numbers—instead, they simply authenticate using their digital banking credentials. Once authenticated, their available bank accounts are returned, and they can choose which one to use.
How Pay By Bank Improves Security and Builds Trust
Pay By Bank’s credential-based verification model not only simplifies the user experience, but also enhances security and builds trust. Many banks respond with a virtual account number to protect the consumer’s actual bank details, addressing privacy concerns that traditionally slowed down ACH adoption.
At its core, PBB is designed to reduce friction and risk by leveraging credential-based verification—a foundational requirement for enabling Pay By Bank. This allows users to authenticate with their bank and select an account for payment, without entering routing or account numbers. While most PBB transactions today are still fulfilled via ACH debits, future capabilities will expand significantly with the adoption of Request for Payment (RfP) messaging through the RTP® network and the FedNow® Service. These real-time, good funds transactions will eliminate ACH return risks and unlock new use cases for billers and financial institutions.
To support this evolution, Alacriti’s enhanced Bank Verification Service (BVS) will soon offer two tiers of account validation to support PBB and broader payments needs:
- Basic: Challenge deposits for account validation.
- Plus: Real-time, credential-based verification powered by Akoya. This service integrates seamlessly with Orbipay EBPP and can verify bank account ownership in real time, without relying on outdated screen scraping technologies.
A Better Payment Experience for Consumers
Many consumers don’t know–or want to enter–their routing or account numbers. With Pay By Bank, they don’t need to. Alacriti’s solution allows users to log in to their digital banking platform and select from eligible accounts for payment, eliminating the need to enter sensitive details manually. This credential-based approach enhances the user experience while increasing confidence and security.
But the value goes beyond convenience. With built-in account verification and optional balance checks, billers and financial institutions can reduce the risk of insufficient funds (NSF) returns. When paired with Same Day ACH, this approach also shortens the payment cycle—enabling faster, lower-risk transactions for scenarios like account funding, loan payoffs, or high-dollar payments.
Why Merchants Are Turning to Pay By Bank
A growing number of merchants are also adopting Pay by Bank to reduce processing costs and streamline transaction workflows. Sixty-seven percent of merchants surveyed believe that Pay by Bank will lower payment acceptance costs. This positions Pay by Bank as not only a more secure and user-friendly option but also a cost-effective one, making it a compelling alternative to traditional card-based payments
What Makes Alacriti’s Pay By Bank Offering Unique?
Alacriti’s Pay By Bank strategy is built with the future in mind. As real-time payment rails like the RTP network and the FedNow Service continue to expand, Request for Payment (RfP) messages are expected to become the standard. These messages provide irrevocable, good funds payments that consumers can approve directly through their bank app, further increasing security and control.
What sets Alacriti apart is its unified, cloud-native platform approach. Rather than offering credential verification as a standalone or third-party add-on, Alacriti integrates this functionality across its core offerings—EBPP, digital disbursements, and the Orbipay Payments Hub. The platform supports intelligent fallback (such as shifting from credential-based flows to challenge deposits) and uses secure, API-based connections through Akoya—avoiding the reliability issues of screen-scraping solutions.
Most importantly, this capability isn’t a patchwork fix—it’s an architected platform service designed to support real-time, Same Day ACH, and future RfP flows with minimal configuration changes. Alacriti’s Pay By Bank feature is built to scale alongside the evolving payments needs.
To learn more about maximizing the potential of Orbipay EBPP, please read Back Office Payment Handling Capabilities.
Alacriti’s Orbipay EBPP is a customizable electronic billing and payments solution for businesses and financial institutions of all sizes. Orbipay EBPP offers convenient and flexible choices that include all the payment channels, payment methods, and payment options expected from a modern digital bill pay experience. For more information, please contact us at info@alacriti.com.
