A demand-deposit account is the anchor liquidity instrument for most consumers and businesses. For some members of the unbanked, it’s a GPR-prepaid-card account. Policymakers and commercial actors are moving to enable real-time payments between DDAs at thousands of U.S. banks. Policymakers aim to improve payment-system efficiency and enable new and …

EMV after effects dominate our list of headaches this year. Still, from regulation to faster payments to interchange uncertainty, there are plenty of other issues to contend with. In the 10 years we have compiled our annual list of pressing issues facing the payments industry, no single theme has dominated …

All the talk about real-time transactions has focused on non-card rails. But all the action has centered on a little-known transaction type that just happens to be offered by Visa and MasterCard. The late summer’s rash of announcements for ready-to-go, real-time payments without the need for a big new network …

Two years after the launch of Apple Pay, here’s a look at Cupertino’s entry and at services from the other tech titans that have joined the mobile-payments game—and at how financial institutions are reacting. Of the three major third-party wallets, Apple Pay is now 2 years old while Alphabet Inc.’s …

Students of federal regulation can be forgiven if they’re not yet up to speed on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new rule governing prepaid accounts. The document runs a total of 1,689 pages, almost double the length of the draft prepaid rule the CFPB issued two years ago. Admittedly, the …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews As payments firms seek to commercialize emerging online marketplaces, they’re starting to leverage automated routines that promise to overturn traditional transaction methods and, just possibly, deliver on the long-sought goal of so-called frictionless payments. This week, both MasterCard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. announced new initiatives …

• Visa Inc. and chip maker and software provider Intel Corp. announced a two-pronged security initiative, one of which aims to protect the growing Zelle person-to-person payments network, to which Fiserv is providing a link. Zelle is expected to launch early next year. • In related news, Fifth Third Bank …

By Jim Daly@DTPayment News Nearly two years and thousands of comments after issuing its draft regulation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its long-awaited final prepaid card rule Wednesday. The 1,689-page document, almost double the size of the draft rule the CFPB issued in November 2014, largely follows what the …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Like a heavy Thanksgiving meal, the 1,689 pages of new prepaid account regulations from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are going to take a while to digest. The rules cover everything from fee disclosures to overdrafts, and, predictably, they are is drawing praise from consumer groups …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews For years, pundits have said consumers trust banks more than any other entity when it comes to payments options, but that doesn’t mean financial institutions are always delivering the most innovative services. Now a review of mobile-banking and -payments offerings indicates even the nation’s biggest banks …