Faster payments

One of the biggest untapped areas of payment innovation is in consumer bill payment, which makes up 30% of U.S. consumer spending, with banks currently playing a shrinking role in the $4 trillion segment.

A recent study from the Federal Reserve outlines consumer habits at the point of sale and offers a preview of how things might trend in the decade ahead.

When the European Union began developing the Single Euro Payments Area more than a decade ago, it didn't include a vision for real-time payments and the potential for a third European payments scheme.

With the cost of processing business transactions remaining stubbornly high, a number of U.K. fintechs are working to facilitate open banking payments, a method which could soon enable consumers and businesses to make faster payments at a lower cost.

To compete and remain relevant in 2020 and beyond, organizations must rapidly develop, test and deploy innovative new products and services in increasingly larger amounts, says Paragon Application Systems' Steve Gilde.

In order to ensure that the public benefits from a faster payments system, we strongly support the Federal Reserve playing a key leadership role, just as central banks have successfully done in other jurisdictions, says TransferWise's Harsh Sinha.

If the intention is for FedNow to give the market a choice, particularly to smaller, local banks then interoperability between the TCH and FedNow is a must, says FIS' Elena Whisler.

Traditional rules-based platforms are insufficient to protect real time payments. Using historical patterns can predict some fraud but will not prevent new evolving patterns as they emerge for the first time, says Deep Labs' Michael Lynch.

The Fed's real-time payments system won't be up and running for years, but consumers and businesses demand faster payments today.

Goldenwest Federal Credit Union is taking another crack at bringing home an underperforming revenue stream, hoping support for due date payments can spur more members to use the service.