P-to-P payments

Though Apple Pay hasn’t lit the world on fire since its launch in October 2014, Apple’s dominant role in mobile e-commerce means its mobile wallet still has the power to hurt payment industry rivals, analysts say.

When it comes to the speed of payments, consumers used to be satisfied with just real-time confirmation of a person-to-person (P2P) transaction and the promise that funds were on their way. This isn’t necessarily the case anymore, and the social implications associated with payments are driving the shift in demand.

If he's worried about fintech upstarts or bitcoin offering a high-tech alternative to Western Union's bread-and-butter business of money transfer, Chief Information Officer David Thompson doesn't let on.

RBC is giving up the revenue it gets from its $1-per-transfer service by offering free Interac transfers from all personal checking accounts, in effect betting that the relationship it builds with customers will be more valuable than its fee income.

Seeing its opening in the mobile wallet market, Mobeewave's pushing a product that exists somewhere between the models of Square and Venmo, resurrecting a relatively old idea of having people pay each other by using their phones.

The real-time, person-to-person payments service launched last week by U.S. Bank and Bank of America with clearXchange will service as a litmus test for whether, and how much, consumers are willing to pay for quick money transfers.

The banks that launched the clearXchange P-to-P network two years ago sensed the urgency to get solid footing in the consumer payments market, but its mission rapidly expanded.

Putting bank venture clearXchange's push for real-time person-to-person payments in motion, U.S. Bank says it is one of the first to make the service available to its customers.

Square Cash has changed a lot since it was introduced as an almost purely email-based person-to-person payments service in 2013, but the addition of its Cash Drawer feature is perhaps the biggest game-changer.

They are barely out of college, but this young generation of consumers has already shortened payment technology cycles, forced virtual currency into the mainstream, and left processors scrambling to stay relevant.