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."
Kansas City Fed
"Fast payments can help consumers improve their cash flow, but the speed and irrevocability of these payments also make them a target for fraudsters seeking to commit authorized push payment (APP) scams. Combating APP scams is critical to ensuring the safety of fast payments and building and maintaining consumer confidence in fast payment systems."
Federal Reserve
"As the FedNow® Service network grows, the Innovation Spotlight series explores use cases that are changing the way businesses and consumers make payments. This article covers the benefits of instant real estate transactions, with insights from paymints.io (Off-site), a fintech that provides a digital payments platform for title companies and real estate brokers."
Business Wire
"Federal Reserve Financial Services announced the expansion of FedDetect Duplicate Notification for Check Services to include commercial checks, alongside its existing Treasury check notification service. Financial institutions can now see deposit information and images of potential duplicate items for commercial checks, supplementing their existing check fraud mitigation tools."
Atlanta Fed
"While the world may be getting smaller, the challenges of sending payments across national borders are not. Inconsistent handling of the various national faster payment services and requirements, both to prevent crime and to protect personal privacy, are among the factors making cross-border payments cumbersome and complex."
FedPayments Improvement
"This year’s Chicago Payments Symposium focused on three key industry themes – innovation, security and adaptability – based on current and evolving trends in innovation, instant payments, global payments, digital currencies, security and information sharing."
Atlanta Fed
"It's common to think about the importance of cash at the onset of weather emergencies like Hurricanes Helene and Milton. At the same time, people who are evacuating in anticipation of natural disasters or working to repair homes and neighborhoods in the aftermath also need digital access, as reinforced by the Atlanta Fed's Katrina's Classroom curriculum."
FedPayments Improvement
"Enhancing business payment efficiency and promoting electronic payment adoption are two ongoing priorities within the payment system. While industry stakeholders have been working to help ease frictions in B2B payments, underlying challenges need to be addressed before most businesses can fully adopt electronic payments."
FedNow
"The FedNow Service has hit a new milestone shortly after reaching its one-year anniversary — there are now more than 1,000 financial institutions, headquartered in all 50 states, participating on the service. Small and midsize financial institutions, including community banks and credit unions, make up more than 95% of the participants on the FedNow Service network."
Atlanta Fed
"Consumer financial data is the foundation of payments, investments, and loans that, when used safely, can support a well-functioning and inclusive economy. Think of open banking as permissioned access to personal financial data. Consumers can authorize third parties to retrieve their information to transform it into useful services."
Atlanta Fed
"Authorized push payment (APP) fraud is a growing concern, causing billions of dollars in global losses. Despite the introduction of technologies like two-factor authentication, biometric security, and artificial intelligence, the rise of faster payments has made combating this type of fraud increasingly difficult."
Kansas City Fed
"...We consider four elements—access, use, safety, and affordability—in our definition of households underserved in digital payments."
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
"Financial institutions are not required to bear the cost of authorized push payment (APP) fraud. When a person is tricked into making a payment to a criminal enterprise, the fraud loss is the consumer's responsibility under Regulation E of the Electronic Funds Transfer."
FRB Services
"In May, Federal Reserve Financial Services’ FedCash® Services released the 2024 Findings from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. Based on a nationally representative survey of U.S. consumers in 2023, the report shows an overall increase in the number of payments compared to previous years, as well as stable cash usage."
Atlanta Fed
"In the fast-paced world of digital finance, new innovations are constantly changing how we manage our money. One development is pay by bank, a payment method that allows consumers to make payments directly from their bank accounts—without using a debit or credit card."
FedNow
"This resource describes the benefits of using instant payments via the FedNow® Service for real estate transactions, highlights use cases and opportunities that show promise, and outlines next steps for real estate industry professionals, payment service providers and enablers, and financial institutions."
Atlanta Fed
"PCI DSS combines technical and operational requirements to protect payment account data and the greater payment ecosystem. Categories include network security, vulnerability management, access controls, monitoring, and security policies. The version 4.0 update included more than 50 enhancements, with some compliance deadlines stretching into 2025."
Atlanta Fed
As of October 2023, 70 percent of US consumers made a mobile payment at least once in the 12 months prior. Consumers young and old are increasingly comfortable using their phones to make payments.
Atlanta Fed
"My colleague Jessica Washington recently blogged about the four-corner payments model as a useful framework for understanding the responsible parties in the payments system. The model shows the minimum number of parties required to conduct clearing and settlement."
The Federal Reserve
"One year after its launch, the FedNow Service has surpassed 900 participating financial institutions — up from 35 that were live on the first day."
Atlanta Fed
"I'm guessing that you, like me, have been riveted by news stories about the Synapse bankruptcy. Synapse makes middleware that facilitates the connection between fintechs and financial institutions, enabling fintechs to assert the availability of pass-through Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance for customer accounts and debit cards."
Atlanta Fed
"As my colleague Lali Shaffer pointed out last month, most of us like getting paid ASAP. For households living paycheck-to-paycheck, waiting to get paid can create problems: Fees for late bills. Deferred medical care. Utility shutoffs. And of course, expedited access to earnings can be helpful for everyone, whatever their financial situation."
Atlanta Fed
"Some retailers use discounts to encourage consumers to choose a particular payment instrument over others. For example, gas stations might offer a discount for paying with cash. Lately, as consumers worry about inflation and their household budgets, you might be seeing more discount offers."
Atlanta Fed
"Merchants have been able to offer discounts since 2012, when proposed legal settlements made it possible for them to do so. Another settlement between merchants and card networks, proposed this spring, would permit merchants to use discounts to distinguish among different types of a network's cards. (The settlements also encompass surcharging practices.)"
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board announced that it will extend until September 6, 2024, the comment period on its proposal to expand the operating days of the Federal Reserve Banks' two large-value payments services, Fedwire® Funds Service and the National Settlement Service (NSS), to include weekends and holidays."
FedPayments Improvement
"The payments industry now has a new tool to improve scam reporting, detection and mitigation. Released in summer 2024, the ScamClassifierSM model supports consistent and detailed classification, reporting, analysis and identification of scams, attempted scams and related trends."
Federal Reserve
"According to new Federal Reserve Financial Services surveys, U.S. businesses and consumers are rapidly adopting digital, faster and instant payments. Overall, 86% of businesses and 74% of consumers said they used faster or instant payments in 2023."
FRB Services
"A new study from Federal Reserve Financial Services revealed consumers made more payments in 2023 than in previous years, continuing the trend of rising payment transactions since 2020. The 2024 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (Diary) is a survey conducted to understand the evolving role of cash in the U.S. economy."
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced a joint public meeting on the proposal by Capital One Financial Corporation, of McLean, Virginia, to acquire Discover Financial Services, of Riverwoods, Illinois...The purpose of the public meeting is to collect information from a wide range of stakeholders as the agencies evaluate the applications."
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board jointly adjusted for inflation dollar amounts relating to the availability of customer funds. These changes in Regulation CC include the minimum amount of deposited funds that banks must make available for withdrawal by opening of business on the next day for certain check deposits as well as the amount of funds deposited by certain checks in a new account that are subject to next-day availability.
