Faster payments

After more than two years of work on its real-time payments rail, The Clearing House senses it has the proper plumbing in place to make any new system hum. And the one thing it wants to make clear: This isn't your father's ACH.

Corporate clients are increasingly asking their banks to help digitize back-office processes. Such a move can help both parties save time and money.

Payment companies' efforts to modernize by connecting systems through partnerships and acquisition has invariably caused a chain reaction of competitive issues in the eyes of regulators.

Bank technology provider D+H Corp. is expanding its role in the expected launch of The Clearing House Real-Time Payments System by offering banks cloud-based testing to simulate a connection to that system.

The time banks have to investigate red-flagged credit payments has shrunk from several days to a few hours and fraudsters have already taken notice.

Australia’s central bank is set to deploy a new, faster payments system enabling near real-time payments for consumers and businesses that will roll out in 2017.

The Federal Reserve is asking the payments industry for input on securing faster payments processing.

In a world filled with a growing number of options for instant and same-day payments, the paper check still holds strong as a barrier to innovation. But it could also be a sign of opportunity.