The Federal Reserve, which is taking industry comments on its upcoming FedNow real-time payments network until Nov. 7, said common questions so far involve pricing and the scope of the service. The first question can’t be answered yet, and the second touches on services that will be designed by financial institutions building on top …
Read More »As Real-Time Payments Rivalry Heats up, Vendors Eye Market Niches And Mid-Tier Institutions
With The Clearing House Payments Co. operating a real-time payments network and the Federal Reserve planning one for no later than 2024, payments companies are looking at slices of the market for opportunities in instant money movement. And these niche plays aren’t just the province of the country’s biggest banks. …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Here’s Why the Fed Should Stay Out of Real-Time Payments (Part II)
Tech behemoths Google, Amazon, and Apple, goliath retailers Walmart and Target, and PayPal, all support the Federal Reserve providing faster payments via its FedNow service, slated for introduction by 2024. Each of them, however, would howl in protest if Washington proposed competing with their business or helping would-be competitors. Fearing The Clearing …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Here’s Why the Fed Should Stay Out of Real-Time Payments (Part I)
The Fed has amassed enormous—in practice, unaccountable—power, and taken roles natural to government and to the private sector. It’s the central bank, paramount financial-system regulator, and a payments operator. It shouldn’t, however, undertake activities better and naturally performed in the private sphere. The latest example: On its own prerogative, the …
Read More »Global Payments Completes TSYS Merger and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/18/19
Global Payments Inc. completed its $21.5 billion all-stock merger with payment processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). The deal cleared its last major hurdle when European Union antitrust regulators said they had no competition concerns, Reuters reported Tuesday. The merged company serves 3.5 million merchant locations and 1,300 financial institutions in more than 100 …
Read More »Without a Digital Business Model, Banks May Lose $280 Billion in Payments Revenue
Digital payments, combined with competition from nonbanks in payments, may cost banks as much as 15% of their global payments revenue, or $280 billion, says Accenture in its “2019 Global Payments Survey.” Released Monday, the survey of 240 retail and corporate payments executives across multiple countries suggests that global-payments revenue …
Read More »Treasurers See Plenty of Use Cases for Real-Time Payments, And They’re Writing Fewer Checks
Corporate treasurers can identify numerous use cases for real-time or otherwise faster payments, but they do worry about transaction security, according to the Association for Financial Professionals. Some 60% of respondents surveyed in the AFP’s newly released 2019 payments study said business-to-business transactions will benefit the most from faster and …
Read More »Mastercard’s Cross-Border Clearing Role and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/11/19
Mastercard Inc. said it will act as the clearing and settlement network for a cross-border payments service the company has agreed to develop with R3, a blockchain-software vendor.Some 74% of online transactions globally are for digital goods and services, with ride-share service and restaurant delivery ranking as the first and second most used …
Read More »Pricing, Disputed Transactions Among Undetermined FedNow Issues
The Federal Reserve’s proposed FedNow real-time payments service won’t be live for more than three years, but bankers and other interested parties peppered two Fed officials with plenty of questions about it Monday. The occasion was a 90-minute webinar in which the officials reviewed the ambitious FedNow plans unveiled last …
Read More »Novopayment’s Instant-Payment Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/4/19
Payments provider NovoPayment said it is introducing instant-payment service Visa Direct for a range of payments, including person-to-person transfers and mass payouts. The move allows issuers, acquirers, and merchants to bring the services to market faster via application programming interfaces, the company said.EVO Payments Inc. said Aldelo, a point-of-sale software developer, selected …
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