Faster payments

An influential task force established by the central bank envisions a future in which the U.S. has multiple real-time payment systems, and in a new report it lays out a series of actions that will be necessary to stitch them together.

American card processor has a deal for its British counterpart; after passing Fed tests, banks still stressed by weak lending, low interest rates.

Though they face an array of competitive threats — from digital currencies to peer-to-peer payment apps — the vast majority of community banks do not have a payments strategy, according to a recent survey.

Real-time payment processing is drawing more attention to tangible use cases, such as helping workers pay bills that are due before they receive their salary.

The move to faster processing has a lot of names, but the most important advancement will be the certainty that the transaction was successfully completed, writes Gene Neyer, head of industry and regulation at Finastra.

Particularly at risk are service providers with high volumes of automated or customer-initiated debit payments, such as cell phone service providers, utilities, cable companies, insurance, and retailers.

The move comes as more banks migrate to faster processing to support mobile payments and other digital transactions.

Payments professionals have done too little to leverage transformational changes in technology to improve the overall client experience.

One of the goals behind Canada's payments overhaul is to get it right the first time.

With over five years of experience in handling real-time business-to-business payments, Transpay has learned that there's more to faster payments than just moving funds. The system has to accommodate a cleaner, rapid process for resolving any issues that arise along the way.

Regulators are calling for the boards of the three separate faster-payments initiatives to review and endorse the consolidation plan and complete most of the consolidation before the end of 2017.

The B-to-B payments market is ripe for digital innovation. Here are some of the most recent moves to bring B-to-B payments up to speed.

Using a program built by Ripple, BBVA has transferred about 50 euro-denominated payments to Mexico from Spain in seconds. Such transactions normally take up to four days to clear, the bank said.

Payments and liquidity management provider Dovetail wants to make sure banks in the euro zone have the systems in place to allow business customers to take advantage of new options for sending and receiving payments later this year.

The majority of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. and Europe express an interest in real-time payments, but very few are aware of the current options being tested and brought to market.

Speakers at PSCU's 2017 Member Forum offered insights on a host of issues related to payments, cybersecurity, leadership and more.

Author Rachel Schneider on income volatility problems; Travis Dulaney talks instant payments; American Banker's Mary Wisniewski discusses the OCC's fintech charter, data aggregation battles, and alternative data.

Lots of countries are making big changes to their payment ecosystems, with lots of public fallout. By contrast, Canada's efforts appear much more subdued.

The industry has made great strides in faster payments over the past year. Even more cooperation among stakeholders will be needed in the year ahead.

Many banks and money transmitters have built successful billion-dollar businesses around P-to-P payments without social sharing and letting users send emojis.