DIRECT ELECTRONIC BILL PAYMENT WITH REAL-TIME FUNDS AVAILABILITY

1 . A payment-messaging computing system comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at the payment-messaging computing system from a biller financial institution, a request for information about a public consumer token of a consumer, wherein the request for information comprises the public consumer token of the consumer, wherein the public consumer token is one of a phone number, a Zelle tag, or an email address of the consumer, wherein the request for information is received at the payment-messaging computing system after the consumer provided the public consumer token to a biller computer of a biller for a bill payment by the consumer to the biller and the biller computer provided the public consumer token to the biller financial institution, and wherein the biller financial institution maintains a biller account of the biller;

determining that the public consumer token of the consumer is registered and active in a directory of the payment-messaging computing system;

determining a risk metric representing a risk of using the public consumer token for the bill payment, wherein determining the risk metric comprises obtaining consumer information comprising first consumer information received from the biller and second consumer information received from a mobile network operator associated with a mobile phone of the consumer, wherein the directory provides a centralized repository for mapping tokenized identifiers to consumer account information for a plurality of consumers at a network of a plurality of financial institutions registered with payment-messaging computing system, and wherein the public consumer token of the consumer was added to the directory upon the consumer registering for the payment-messaging computing system through a consumer financial institution;

sending the risk metric from the payment-messaging computing system to the biller financial institution to cause the biller financial institution to send the risk metric to the biller computer to allow the biller to determine whether to assume liability for the bill payment or instead request the consumer financial institution assume liability and whether to perform a step-up authentication, based on the risk metric;

receiving, at the payment-messaging computing system from the biller financial institution, an authorization message for the bill payment after the authorization message was provided to the biller financial institution by the biller computer; and

sending the authorization message for the bill payment to the consumer financial institution, to cause the consumer financial institution to send a real-time payment message through the payment-messaging computing system to the biller financial institution to make funds available in real-time in the biller account for the bill payment.

2 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein the real-time payment message comprises an irrevocable promise to pay a payment amount for the bill payment from a consumer account of the consumer maintained at the consumer financial institution to the biller account.

3 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein:

the consumer requested the bill payment without providing the biller with account information of a consumer account of the consumer maintained at the consumer financial institution.

4 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein settlement of the bill payment between the consumer financial institution and the biller financial institution occurs in a batch ACH after the funds are made available in real-time in the biller account.

5 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein the authorization message was provided by the biller computer after the biller assumed liability for the bill payment.

6 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 5 , wherein the biller assumed liability for the bill payment based on the risk metric provided by the payment-messaging computing system.

7 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 5 , wherein the biller assumed liability for the bill payment after performing the step-up authentication of the consumer.

8 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein the authorization message was provided by the biller computer after the consumer financial institution assumed liability for the bill payment.

9 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 8 , wherein:

the biller did not assume liability for the bill payment; and

the consumer financial institution assumed liability for the bill payment after performing an authentication of the consumer.

10 . The payment-messaging computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first consumer information received from the biller further comprises profile change event history for the consumer.

11 . A computer-implemented method executed at one or more processors of a payment-messaging computing system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at the payment-messaging computing system from a biller financial institution, a request for information about a public consumer token of a consumer, wherein the request for information comprises the public consumer token of the consumer, wherein the public consumer token is one of a phone number, a Zelle tag, or an email address of the consumer, wherein the request for information is received at the payment-messaging computing system after the consumer provided the public consumer token to a biller computer of a biller for a bill payment by the consumer to the biller and the biller computer provided the public consumer token to the biller financial institution, and wherein the biller financial institution maintains a biller account of the biller;

determining that the public consumer token of the consumer is registered and active in a directory of the payment-messaging computing system;

determining a risk metric representing a risk of using the public consumer token for the bill payment, wherein determining the risk metric comprises obtaining consumer information comprising first consumer information received from the biller and second consumer information received from a mobile network operator associated with a mobile phone of the consumer, wherein the directory provides a centralized repository for mapping tokenized identifiers to consumer account information for a plurality of consumers at a network of a plurality of financial institutions registered with payment-messaging computing system, and wherein the public consumer token of the consumer was added to the directory upon the consumer registering for the payment-messaging computing system through a consumer financial institution;

sending the risk metric from the payment-messaging computing system to the biller financial institution to cause the biller financial institution to send the risk metric to the biller computer to allow the biller to determine whether to assume liability for the bill payment or instead request the consumer financial institution assume liability and whether to perform a step-up authentication, based on the risk metric;

receiving, at the payment-messaging computing system from the biller financial institution, an authorization message for the bill payment after the authorization message was provided to the biller financial institution by the biller computer; and

sending the authorization message for the bill payment to the consumer financial institution, to cause the consumer financial institution to send a real-time payment message through the payment-messaging computing system to the biller financial institution to make funds available in real-time in the biller account for the bill payment.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the real-time payment message comprises an irrevocable promise to pay a payment amount for the bill payment from a consumer account of the consumer maintained at the consumer financial institution to the biller account.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein:

the consumer requested the bill payment without providing the biller with account information of a consumer account of the consumer maintained at the consumer financial institution.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein settlement of the bill payment between the consumer financial institution and the biller financial institution occurs in a batch ACH after the funds are made available in real-time in the biller account.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the authorization message was provided by the biller computer after the biller assumed liability for the bill payment.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the biller assumed liability for the bill payment based on the risk metric provided by the payment-messaging computing system.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the biller assumed liability for the bill payment after performing the step-up authentication of the consumer.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the authorization message was provided by the biller computer after the consumer financial institution assumed liability for the bill payment.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , wherein:

the biller did not assume liability for the bill payment; and

the consumer financial institution assumed liability for the bill payment after performing an authentication of the consumer.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the first consumer information received from the biller further comprises profile change event history for the consumer.