Real-time payments

Kenneth Montgomery, a top executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, will head the push to make faster payments available across the industry in the next four to five years.

Were the Fed to develop its own payments platform, it would be expensive, duplicative, inefficient, and curtail development of real-time services, argues the National Taxpayers Union's Thomas Aiello.

The San Francisco-based fintech is using JPMorgan Chase’s real-time payments service to power the new overdraft prevention tool.

Anticipating recession, banks start scrubbing loan books; how Trump's political appointees thwarted tougher settlements with two big banks; the Fed's plans on its real-time payment service; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Readers react to the Fed's lengthy plan for a real-time payments system and Fifth Third's minimum wage increase, jab at Sen. Warren's absence on the Senate Banking Committee and more.

The Fed's involvement will inject competition into the market and offer merchants choice as they weigh their payments acceptance options, argues John Drechny, CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group.

If the Federal Reserve doesn't maintain an active role, Wall Street megabanks could take over the payments system.

House lawmakers go light on BB&T-SunTrust merger; Santander Bank names longtime MUFG Union executive its CEO; the fintechs trying to solve America's retirement problem; and more from this week's most-read stories.

The CEO of a big-bank lobbying group recently said that the central bank may be on the verge of pulling a bait and switch on faster payments. But his comments glossed over a lot of the relevant history.

If the Federal Reserve doesn't maintain an active role, Wall Street megabanks could take over the payments system.