Real-time payments

Companies that rely on contract work also depend on diversifying revenue streams, a cycle that will repeatedly place fresh stress on an already complicated payroll system.

How banks and network providers combat real-time payment fraud; online banks try new pricing strategies; the Most Powerful Women in Banking call for greater leadership diversity; and more from this week's most-read stories.

For bankers and network providers, it’s a given that moving to a real-time payment system like Zelle will lead to an increase in fraud attempts. Here's a look at the ways they're fighting back.

Visa is working with the on-demand delivery network Postmates to deliver real time payments through Stripe’s Instant Payouts feature, running on its push payment platform, Visa Direct.

The payments industry is engaged in 40 active real-time payments programs worldwide, but it's not as chaotic as it sounds — except in the U.S.

More than half of U.S. financial institutions have made same-day ACH funds available without seeing any major shifts in fraud. But observers warn that as same-day ACH introduces broader access and bigger transactions, it will become a bigger temptation for fraudsters.

Uber’s corporate existence has jumped from one PR crisis to another, but the company has always been lauded for how seamlessly it handles payments. Until now.

Each major disaster is a real-world testing ground for payments technology, but it can also be a stark reminder of the limits of these advancements.

New architecture for real-time payments went live in recent months in key global markets, expanding B2B payment options for financial institutions and their corporate customers.

One expert says the U.S. lags behind other countries, but changes are coming soon – and fast.

To consolidate the data flows that are increasingly becoming part of real-time payment processing, Ingenico is turning to MapR Technologies to provide artificial intelligence and analytics to its platform.

Digital payments are becoming a critical aspect of nearly every new service for merchants or financial institutions.

The Canadian government is consulting with the country’s banking industry on opening up Canada’s payments infrastructure to nonbank payment service providers and fintechs, in a far-reaching move to spur innovation and competition.

Beem It, a startup owned by three of Australia’s largest banks, has launched a free real-time social payments app designed to run on older debit networks instead of the country's new faster payments platform.

Visa Canada plans to offer real-time B2B and B2C disbursements via its Visa Direct card-to-card transfer service, competing head-on with Canada's Interac network and a product Mastercard launched in the country earlier this year.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication has its sights set on expanding real-time payments in the Asia-Pacific region as part of its plan to further its first value-add service created from the Global Payments Innovation initiative.

For the U.S., being late to the real-time payments game has some tactical advantages, namely the ability to learn from other countries' successes and failures.

The Clearing House expected to take some time to introduce its new network to financial institutions and play up its benefits.

Ripple, the U.S. digital payments company, is working with 61 Japanese banks on an application that will enable customers to settle cash transfers instantly around the clock, the latest effort to apply blockchain technology in finance.

If they haven't already, card-issuing banks will soon receive a shock when the speed of PSD2's requirements becomes clear. Payments will have to happen faster, and the deadline to make that happen is fast approaching.