A leading payments industry news source for more than 17 years. Glenbrook curates the news and keeps you abreast of the important daily headlines in payments.
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May 15, 2025
On the web
Central Banks Prepare for a Tokenized Future
Ledger Insights
"Imagine a financial world where every transaction, from billion-dollar treasury purchases to retail payments, exists entirely as digital tokens. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub aren’t just imagining this scenario, they’re actively preparing for it through Project Pine."
May 14, 2025
Top Post
2025 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice Reveals Cash Remains Relevant in an Increasingly Digital Economy
FRB Services
"Federal Reserve Financial Services issued the 2025 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (Diary), an annual survey measuring the evolving role of cash in the U.S. economy. Findings from this nationally representative survey showed that amid the increasing digitalization of payments, consumers continue to use cash and keep it handy."
On the web
Project Pine: Central Bank Open Market Operations With Smart Contracts
BIS
"Project Pine is a joint research study by the New York Fed's New York Innovation Center and the BIS Innovation Hub Swiss Centre that explores if and how central banks can implement monetary policy in a potential future state where the financial sector widely adopts tokenisation in wholesale markets."
May 2, 2025
On the web
Finalize Your ISO® 20022 Preparedness and Contingency Plans
FRB Services
"Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) will transition to the ISO 20022 format for the Fedwire® Funds Service on July 14, 2025. It is critical that you have a contingency plan in the event that you are not ready to send or receive ISO 20022 messages through the Fedwire Funds Service or your wire ecosystem is not ready for ISO 20022 messages beginning July 14."
April 30, 2025
On the web
Survey: Innovative Use Cases Drive Businesses to Instant Payments
FedPayments Improvement
"Businesses are actively using instant payments. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. businesses (66%) are likely to use instant payments if offered by their primary financial institution, according to a Federal Reserve Financial Services survey. And when they can do so, they rate their financial institution higher: Businesses that use instant payments reported 10% greater satisfaction with their primary financial institution than businesses that do not."
April 24, 2025
On the web
New Research Shows U.S. Businesses Resolve Pain Points, Find Solutions With Instant Payments
Federal Reserve
"U.S. businesses are using instant payments to solve common payment pain points and improve customer and employee experiences, according to a new survey released by Federal Reserve Financial Services. Most businesses (66%) said they were likely to use instant payments if offered by their primary financial institution, and businesses using instant payments reported 10% greater satisfaction with their primary financial institution than businesses that do not."
April 23, 2025
On the web
Unlock the Power of Instant Payments by Exploring Transaction Types
FedPayments Improvement
"Understanding the different types of instant payment transactions is key to leveraging their full potential. From streamlining business operations to enhancing individuals’ financial flexibility, here’s a closer look at how instant payments are being used today – and the opportunities they create for the future."
April 18, 2025
Top Post
Federal Reserve Board Announces Approval of Application by Capital One Financial Corporation To Merge With Discover Financial Services and Issues a Consent Order With Discover
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board announced its approval of the application by Capital One Financial Corporation, of McLean, Virginia, to merge with Discover Financial Services, of Riverwoods, Illinois, and thereby indirectly acquire Discover Bank, of Greenwood, Delaware."
April 17, 2025
On the web
America’s Credit Divide Widens: Affluent Borrowers Rise While Millions Fall Behind
IBS Intelligence
"American consumers are splitting into two financial realities. On one side, a segment of affluent borrowers is securing larger mortgages and rising credit card limits. On the other hand, millions are falling behind, struggling with minimum payments, rising delinquencies, and stagnant credit access. New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reveals that credit card delinquency rates have surged to record highs."
April 16, 2025
Top Post
FedNow® Service Continues Momentum in Q1 2025
Fed Now
"The FedNow Service saw continued strong growth in volume, transaction value and number of participants during Q1 2025. More than 1,300 participating financial institutions are live on the service today. Small and midsize financial institutions, including community banks and credit unions, make up more than 95% of participants on the network. Over the three-month period, more than 1.3 million transactions were settled on the FedNow Service. Consumers and businesses sent an average of $540 million through the service per day."
April 15, 2025
On the web
Stay On Track for the July 14 Fedwire® Funds Service Migration to ISO® 20022
Federal Reserve
"As the Fedwire Funds Service’s migration to ISO 20022 has been rescheduled to July 14, 2025, Federal Reserve Financial Services highly recommends that financial institutions use the next few months to enhance their readiness plans, test in the DIT2 environment and participate in peer testing to ensure they are ready for the transition."
April 10, 2025
On the web
Game Changer: The Evolution of Video Games’ Payments Infrastructure
Kansas City Fed
"The video game industry has become a significant economic force, generating nearly $60 billion in revenue in 2024 in the United States alone and $190 billion globally. The evolution of video game revenue models and their underlying payments infrastructure have contributed to the success of the industry. However, some aspects of video game transactions have drawn regulators’ attention due to issues related to consumer protection, data privacy, and financial crime."
March 28, 2025
On the web
FDIC Clarifies Process for Banks to Engage in Crypto-Related Activities
FDIC Subscriptions
"The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a Financial Institution Letter (FIL-7-2025) that provides new guidance for FDIC-supervised institutions engaging or seeking to engage in crypto-related activities. The guidance affirms that FDIC-supervised institutions may engage in permissible activities, including activities involving new and emerging technologies such as crypto-assets and digital assets, provided that they adequately manage the associated risks."
Debit Card Interchange Fees Charged to Small Merchants After Regulation II
kansas City Fed
"In this article, Fumiko Hayashi examines whether the prohibitions on exclusivity arrangements and routing limitations helped reduce exempt interchange fees charged to small merchants for in-person debit card transactions. She finds that while some networks reduced these fees for certain merchant categories, other networks either increased or did not change their fees."
March 19, 2025
On the web
Data from the Federal Reserve Payments Study Shows the Pace of Payments Accelerating
Atlanta Fed
"The allure of speed plays a role in changing use patterns for all kinds of payment methods, familiar and new. Automated clearing house (ACH) transactions and person-to-person (P2P) payments via depository institution websites are two payment types for which recent growth rates show the importance of speed. Data from the Federal Reserve Payment Study (FRPS) finds that same-day ACH debit transfers grew 39 percent per year by value from 2018 to 2021."
March 14, 2025
On the web
National Payment Volumes, Detailed Data, ACH, Checks, Wires, and Alternative Payments
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Payments Study is an ongoing effort to estimate aggregate trends in noncash payments in the United States. This release contains national estimates of the number and value of transaction accounts, checks, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transfers, and wire transfers for the United States in the years 2015, 2018, and 2021."
March 10, 2025
On the web
Business Use of Wires Grew Sharply from 2018 to 2021
Atlanta Fed
"Business payments are concentrated in wires, ACH credit transactions, and (still) checks, according to 2021 data released by the Federal Reserve Payments Study (FRPS) last month. Of these payment types, wires grew most by both number and value from 2018."
March 3, 2025
On the web
Counterfeit Cards Persist: Is the Magstripe to Blame?
Atlanta Fed
"...The United Kingdom (UK) began migrating to EMV chip-card technology in 2002. In 2007, the UK started issuing EMV chip cards for contactless and mobile tapping payments. No PIN required. No magstripe included. Magstripe information is received in the clear by the card reader and can be easily intercepted for cloning."
February 26, 2025
On the web
Fednow® Service Announces New Risk Mitigation Features and $1 Million Transaction Limit
Fed Now
"Starting in summer 2025, FedNow Service participants will have access to new account activity threshold functionality, which will allow participants to define value and velocity thresholds by customer segment to fit their unique business needs and risk tolerance. The new risk mitigation features will take effect alongside a FedNow Service transaction limit increase from $500,000 to $1 million."
February 25, 2025
On the web
Banks Can't Afford to Delay ISO 20022
Atlanta Fed
"ISO 20022 was introduced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2004 as a global standard for financial messaging. A report by American Banker found that forty percent of US banks are falling behind on their implementation plan with ten percent stating they have no definitive timeline."
February 19, 2025
On the web
Discover Different Types of Instant Payment Transactions
FRB Services
Financial institutions can leverage the FedNow® Service to allow their customers to send and receive payments instantly, delivering benefits to both consumers and businesses. Read about a few instant payment use cases to offer.
February 14, 2025
Top Post
Iso® 20022 Implementation Rescheduled to July 14, 2025 for the Fedwire® Funds Service
frbservices
"The Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) has worked with the industry to prepare for the implementation of the new ISO 20022 message format for the Fedwire Funds Service. After an assessment of customer readiness, FRFS has decided to reschedule the Fedwire Funds Service ISO 20022 implementation from March 10 to July 14, 2025. The Fedwire Funds Service will remain on the current message format until July 14 and announce its final “go” or “no go” decision for July 14 no later than June 27."
On the web
Did Card-Present Fraud Rates Decline in the United States After the Migration to Chip Cards?
Kansas City Fed
"The U.S. payment industry began migrating to EMV chip-card technology in the mid-2010s to mitigate card-present fraud, especially counterfeit fraud. However, for non-prepaid debit card transactions processed by dual-message networks, the counterfeit fraud rate has not declined, and the lost-or-stolen fraud rate and overall card-present fraud rate have increased. For these transactions, card-present fraud loss rates have declined for issuers but increased for merchants and cardholders."
February 12, 2025
Top Post
Powell Squashes the Possibility That the Fed Will Develop Its Own Digital Currency
CNBC
"Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell asserted Tuesday that the central bank will not develop its own digital currency as long as he is in charge. Ending several years of speculation whether the Fed would join some of its global counterparts, including China, in developing a formal cryptocurrency like bitcoin or its many peers, Powell said during a Senate hearing that the project would not go forward."
On the web
Teaching an Old Dog New Payments Tricks with Stablecoin
Atlanta Fed
"Learning how to purchase stablecoin and use it to make purchases took some research. If you were wondering why anyone would use stablecoin or why merchants would be interested in taking it, we encountered some of the same questions at the beginning of the pandemic with contactless payments."
January 30, 2025
On the web
When Synthetic Identities and Artificial Intelligence Collide
FedPayments Improvement
"Depending on what you read and who you speak with, generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is either a big problem or the solution to a multitude of challenges. It can be both in the case of synthetic identity fraud, as explained in a new downloadable resource of the Federal Reserve’s online Synthetic Identity Fraud Mitigation Toolkit."
Will the European Union's Instant Payments Regulation Force the Hand of US Payments?
Atlanta Fed
"We are all familiar with the 10-second countdown to the new year. Imagine receiving money from a friend in a different country that clears and settles in that same amount of time. Cross-border payments may typically take days to clear and settle."
January 15, 2025
On the web
Federal Reserve Reminder: Fees and Payment System Enhancements for 2025
FRB Services
"The recently announced pricing changes for 2025, which took effect Jan. 1, 2025, support Federal Reserve Financial Services’ (FRFS) plans for the new year and reflect our continued strategic focus on providing customers with a fully integrated product suite that offers speed, resilience and choice."
January 14, 2025
On the web
Here a Coin, There a Coin, Everywhere a Stablecoin
Atlanta Fed
"Cryptocurrencies have been around for over a decade, yet the way they operate, their value, and their impact on traditional payments remains puzzling—even to me. While Bitcoin and Ethereum dominate the headlines, stablecoins are quietly becoming a significant part of our daily lives."
January 7, 2025
On the web
Mobile Wallet Purchases Skyrocket on a Small Base
Atlanta Fed
"Mobile wallets are used to store digital versions of cards on a mobile device, typically a smart phone. The charts show purchases made using mobile wallets have skyrocketed since 2018. Growth in these purchases from 2021 to 2022 exceed that of prior periods—53 percent by number and 45 percent by value."
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