Faster payments

By adopting faster payments, businesses have more flexibility to make last-minute payments and emergency payrolls, or gain a larger window for early-payment discounts.

As the federal budget dispute shoves an increasing number of government workers to the sidelines, there’s a window to provide payments relief that’s superior to options such as payday lending and bartering.

The rise of contactless cards could eclipse mobile payments adoption, experts predicted, while evolving fraud threats may give rise to increased account controls for consumers.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

The software, which was developed by Feedzai, will eventually block payments that appear to be fraudulent or mistaken.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten the ball rolling for financial technology firms trying to operate a national platform, but the FDIC and Federal Reserve should act to remove other policy roadblocks.

As Congress races to fund the government, a criminal justice reform bill could also include the STATES Act, which would provide safe harbor for credit unions serving the legal marijuana industry.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten the ball rolling for financial technology firms trying to operate a national platform, but the FDIC and Federal Reserve should act to remove other policy roadblocks.

Digital funds transfer provider Ingo Money is launching a new software integration with Visa Direct to allow customers to initiate push-to-card payments.

Vocalink, a Mastercard company, signed a contract with Peru’s automated clearinghouse, Cámara de Compensación Electrónica, to modernize the country’s payment infrastructure, including support for real-time payments at all times.

The Fed's faster payments task force is not likely to receive welcoming feedback from current operators who aren't convinced a hands-on role for the Fed is needed.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

The Bank of England is upgrading the U.K.’s Real-Time Gross Settlement system. Separately, the U.K. payments authority is developing a New Payments Architecture that will upgrade Britain’s Faster Payments real-time retail system.

While equity prices drop an average 5% at big banks, bosses express confidence in the U.S. economy; the bank appoints new managers in payments, consumer banking and marketing.

Whatever the central bank decides, it is sure to ruffle a lot of feathers in the industry.

Proponents of real-time payments systems say banks must embrace them given consumer demand for more immediacy and transparency, even if criminals will try to exploit them.

As U.S. banks move toward faster payments, they should heed the lessons U.K. banks learned about criminals after launching their real-time transaction system, says Varo Money's fraud strategy leader.

A year after its launch, Zelle’s P2P payment volume has rapidly expanded through usage at the nation’s largest banks. But enabling smaller institutions to offer it to their customers is proving to be more challenging.

Data from real-time payments creates powerful opportunities for upselling and cross-selling because it reveals what, when, and how people and businesses actually consume, writes Michael J. Alfonsi, senior vice president of digital solutions and strategy at Exela Technologies.