Faster payments

The network says more than $100 billion in Swift GPI payment messages are sent daily, enabling payments to be credited to the end beneficiaries within minutes — and some within seconds.

If they haven't already, card-issuing banks will soon receive a shock when the speed of PSD2's requirements becomes clear. Payments will have to happen faster, and the deadline to make that happen is fast approaching.

Global payment and fraud prevention provider Pelican is bringing its faster payments system to the North America market after working within the European SEPA Instant Payments scheme last year.

While Zelle is working hard to become the Venmo for grown-ups, it is also pushing into retail payments, particularly in opportunities for displacement of cash and check and where funds are needed in minutes rather than days or weeks.

PayPal has been working to expand Venmo's audience beyond millennials for more than a year, a strategy that it hopes to further with instant transfers.

The client groups aim to take an active role in shaping the future of payments.

The San Francisco startup behind the cryptocurrency XRP claims it can send money around the world faster, cheaper and with greater transparency.

Despite the mad rush among investors to buy up bitcoin, XRP and other prominent cryptocurrencies, these digital coins have largely failed to operate as instruments for payment. MoneyGram's deal with Ripple might change that, or it might be the first nail in the crypto coffin.

CSCU will continue as a separate, card-processing entity.

For all of the noise in the payments industry around transitioning to real-time and same-day digital payments — and in the mainstream media around the bitcoin craze — paper checks still persist as the preferred means of disbursement for the majority of business-to-business transactions.