Nacha has announced it is developing Phixius, an online platform that integrates technology, rules and participants to exchange payment-related information across all payment types. Phixius looks to modernise and streamline the payments process.

Nacha says it is building Phixius in response to industry calls to simplify and automate the process of exchanging payment-related information. Currently, the use of bilateral agreements creates inefficiency and restricts broader participation. Additionally, existing manual processing results in administrative errors, misdirected payments and opportunities for fraud.

Phixius is intended to enable companies to exchange payment-related information regarding products and services to improve fraud protection, automate manual processes and improve customer experiences. It can be used to reduce the cost of producing and sending cheques and standardise information sharing.  Nacha plans to make Phixius available to early adopter organisations in May 2020.

“Traditionally, the exchange of payment-related information has consisted of multiple bilateral agreements,” said George Throckmorton Nacha managing director and executive director of Afinis Interoperability Standards. “Unfortunately, that limits broader industry adoption and fails to address today’s interoperability expectations. Phixius changes all of that. Phixius eliminates the need for multiple data exchange agreements by leveraging blockchain technology, standardisation and rules that govern network participants.”

By using blockchain, Afinis interoperable and standardized APIs, and ISO 20022, Phixius will provide the necessary features and functionality to safely and securely facilitate payment information exchange among all participants.

Nacha also announced that it has selected Ernst & Young LLP (EY) to help develop Phixius.

“EY is delighted to work with Nacha on the development of Phixius,” said Jennifer Lucas, managing director at Ernst & Young LLP and the EY Americas FSO Advisory Payments Lead.  “This industry platform is designed to address many pain points in the adoption of electronic payments.”