Pacing Payments

The very earliest indications show that real-time payments will soon become a must-have capability for banks, in terms of satisfying customer demand and providing revenue to banks. “It’s here now, it’s happening, and we need to be prepared for it, because it’s an opportunity for all of us,” Mihail Duta, director of product management for Finastra, said recently during a company user group presentation.

First Tech Federal Credit Union announced that the Zelle P2P service is live in its mobile banking app, enabling payments for more than 110,000 First Tech mobile banking members. Zelle, powered by payments and risk management firm Early Warning, enables funds to be sent from one bank account to another typically in minutes, when both parties are enrolled, using only a recipient’s email address or mobile number.

In the latest installment of the “Kill The Check” Series, PYMNTS’ Karen Webster sat down with Ingo Money CEO Drew Edwards to delve into the opportunity banks have in helping corporate customers cut back on the time and expense of paper checks...Banks should offer real-time payments as part of their corporate and treasury offerings to cement client relationships and expand revenue opportunities, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are paying consumers and suppliers, who themselves might be small businesses.

The word that is most often uttered about the efforts underway to develop a roadmap for real time payments in the U.S. is “collaboration”.  In the reports published and webinars conducted by the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payment Task force, representatives from the Fed and private industry extoll the level of partnership and strong working relationships that has been forged to move the real time payments initiative to its current state.  CUNA, as reported in CUNA News, suggests that there is some discord in all of that collaboration: