Faster payments

The central bank aims to roll out FedNow sometime in 2023, which is more optimistic than its previous timetable. The official leading the project noted progress in developing the infrastructure and its compatibility with private-sector solutions.

The card network is testing two artificial intelligence-powered programs that it says give banks some of the benefits of faster payments without requiring the immediate movement of funds.

The card network is testing two artificial intelligence-powered programs that it says give banks some of the benefits of faster payments without requiring the immediate movement of funds.

Many financial institutions have made initial moves into real-time payments via P2P services, and the use cases will jump over time, says Fiserv's Matt Wilcox.

While there has been a general trend of paying people faster for work already performed, starting with gig workers, COVID-19 has created (or exposed) many issues that are fueling the shift toward on-demand pay, especially for hourly workers.

Faster payments haven't always lived up to the hype and promise because of development and adoption stagnation in the U.S., but the idea of speedier transactions is becoming more popular.

TransferGo will use Mastercard's push payment service to support near real-time money transfers for European customers.

High profile companies like Facebook, Square and PayPal have brought attention to using cryptocurrency for payments — but speed is more important than buzz in getting stores to view crypto as tender, according to a group of developers who are building connections to merchants.

With Brazil's Central Bank launching the PIX instant payments network Monday, Uber and Ebanx quickly announced they are expanding their partnership to enable Brazilians to make instant payments through PIX for Uber rides and Uber Eats orders.