Payment processing

Real-time payments and FedNow were top of mind at The Clearing House's annual conference this week. Here's how banks and payment companies see RTP's potential evolution.

The card lender took full control of Swisscard from UBS; the Financial Conduct Authority is bringing installment lending regulations in line with other consumer financial products; and more payments news from around the world.

The Cincinnati-based bank aimed for consistency in the third quarter as it built on strategic initiatives. Executives expect "record" net interest income next year.

The BNPL industry is growing at a fast clip. Australia-based Zip's new CEO for U.S. operations is looking to carve out a place in what is becoming a crowded industry with expanded merchant partnerships and a Pay-in-8 product.

The bank's acquisition of embedded finance firm Rize Money and collaboration with open banking firm Trustly will enable the bank to grow real-time processing, account-to-account transfers and address emerging compliance challenges.

Since launching in summer 2023, the government-backed instant settlement network has attracted hundreds of financial institutions, but there is still room for growth.

The trucking and transportation industry is highly fragmented with hundreds of thousands of participants and different processing systems. The $1 trillion in revenue has drawn processors and card companies armed with new tech.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Christopher Waller said interlinking instant payments systems could come with a steep price tag for banks and heightened risks for customers.

Sen. Richard Blumethal, D-Conn., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, asked bankers whether the Electronic Funds Transfer Act should be updated to include scams that involve authorized fund transfers.

The government-backed instant processing network has been live only since the summer of 2023, but it's already indirectly boosting usage at an unrelated bank-led rail from The Clearing House.

The organization says 'request for pay' has gotten early traction with billing and account-to account transfers. Now it's targeting consumer-to-government and digital wallet disbursements.

The bank is connecting billers and brokerage accounts as it builds the case for instant funding. It also points to countries such as Brazil and India as models to follow.

Incumbents face the challenge of updating their infrastructure for digital payments, while newcomers are pushing to compete by using artificial intelligence, cloud hosting and other technologies.

The payment processing firm said that companies will no longer be locked in to processing payments with Stripe in order to access its other products.

Brazil's Pix network, at just three years old, now accounts for 15% of all global real-time payments — and its success is inspiring projects in other countries.

Banks can choose to only receive transactions instantly, and it's the most popular choice. Simply preferring to get paid faster isn't the reason.

Charging a nonsufficient funds fee on a debit, ATM or peer-to-peer payment that gets declined immediately would be considered "abusive" under a proposed rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve would seem to offer a compelling alternative to the bank-backed RTP network, but some credit unions — which typically see bank systems as competitive threats — are making more nuanced choices.