Faster payments

Customer interaction platform Podium has added a Payments feature, allowing businesses to use text messaging to accept funds directly from customers.

For real-time payments, there are national schemes to help drive adoption and enhance consumer convenience, according to Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi and Shantanu Vijaykumar Bhosale

The Fed can take steps now to speed up existing networks.

Immediate payments through an existing payments platform means firms can pay quickly, satisfying the expectations of gig workers who are increasingly important to the company’s functions.

The central bank of Brazil will launch the Brazilian Instant Payments Scheme, or PIX, in November as the single brand for instant payment functionality.

Achieving the myriad business cash flow benefits from RTP is easier said than done, as global standards can conflict with local laws, rules, regulations and organizational culture, says Santander's Chris Bozek.

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Ken Montgomery, who is heading up the Federal Reserve's faster payments network, says the agency is taking an incremental approach to launching the service.

To address immediate market demand but allow time for the project to be done right, the official leading implementation of FedNow says the central bank envisions an initial release in 2023 or 2024 followed by subsequent updates.

While many consumers and large businesses are keen to adopt digital, real-time payments, there are still some groups of users that tend towards longer-established payment methods that are inconsistent with the digital economy, according to Standard Chartered's Tarek Elyafi and Shantanu Vijaykumar Bhosale.