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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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September 4, 2025
On the web
What’s New With New Account Fraud?
Federal Reserve
"In today’s digitized world, financial institutions may have many reasons to encourage customers to open accounts electronically. The digital onboarding process, whether online or in-app, typically is more convenient than in-person onboarding. However, without appropriate fraud detection or controls in place, digital account opening can expose financial institutions to numerous opportunities for criminals."
September 3, 2025
Top Post
Contact and Payment Methods Used for the Top Five Categories of Scams
Kansas City Fed
"In recent years, the amount of money U.S. consumers have lost to scams has increased sharply. The contact methods scammers use to reach consumers and the payment methods defrauded consumers use to pay scammers vary depending on the category of scam. However, both the use of social media as a contact method and the use of cryptocurrency, payment apps, and bank transfers as payment methods have increased across the top five scam categories."
August 29, 2025
On the web
Automated Clearing House Payments [History]
Federal Reserve History
"Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments were first established in the 1970s by the Federal Reserve System and the banking industry. Up to that point, cash and checks had been the principal methods for retail payments in the United States. ACH payments, which are initiated electronically, were envisioned as a more-efficient payment method."
August 27, 2025
Top Post
Instant Payment Use Cases: Property and Casualty Insurance
Fed Now
"The FedNow® Service can offer insurance carriers the ability to instantly send final and irrevocable funds 24x7x365, creating an opportunity to modernize the policyholder experience, thus growing satisfaction and enhancing loyalty. This resource describes the advantages of transferring funds with instant payments, and outlines next steps for insurance carriers, service providers and financial institutions."
August 20, 2025
Top Post
Payments Study: Gathering Data from Thousands of Depository Institutions
Atlanta Fed
"My colleagues at the Atlanta Fed and I have been reaching out to leaders in the payments industry to assist them with responding to the Depository and Financial Institutions Payments Survey (DFIPS). This every-three-years survey is an essential component of the Federal Reserve Payments Study (FRPS). New this year: the FRPS is collecting data on the number and value of instant payments, encompassing real-time payments and FedNow."
August 14, 2025
On the web
Federal Reserve Unveils Two Online Toolkits for Scams and Check Fraud Mitigation
FRB Services
"With payments fraud on the rise, the Federal Reserve has released two new toolkits: the Scams Mitigation Toolkit and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit. The toolkits are intended to support education and increase awareness about scams and check fraud, enable the payments industry to better identify and fight them, and foster industry collaboration on fraud and scams mitigation."
August 4, 2025
On the web
Earmarking in Programmable Payments
Atlanta Fed
"As programmable payments become more common, an old-school budgeting idea is making a comeback: earmarking. At its core, earmarking just means setting money aside for a specific purpose—like rent, payroll, or taxes—so it's only used for that. It's a simple concept, but when combined with automation, it could be the budgeting upgrade many people and businesses have been waiting for."
July 31, 2025
On the web
Infographic: FedNow® Service by the Numbers
FRB Services
"It’s been two years since the FedNow Service launched. See a snapshot of how things are going and what’s on the horizon in this new infographic."
July 24, 2025
Top Post
Infographic: Two Years of the FedNow® Service
Fed Now
"Check out this infographic for a snapshot of the growth and innovation that’s been taking place on the FedNow Service since it launched in July 2023."
July 18, 2025
On the web
Rounding Up: The Impact of Phasing Out the Penny
Richmond Fed
"The U.S. government is expected to stop producing new pennies for circulation by early 2026. In 2024, the Treasury incurred a seigniorage loss of $85.3 million on penny production. As pennies phase out, businesses are likely to round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents, resulting in a "rounding tax." Using data from the 2023 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, we estimate that rounding tax could cost U.S. consumers approximately $6 million annually."
July 17, 2025
Top Post
Generative AI at the Crossroads: Light Bulb, Dynamo, or Microscope?
Federal Reserve
"With the advent of generative AI (genAI), the potential scope of artificial intelligence has increased dramatically, but the future effect of genAI on productivity remains uncertain. The effect of the technology on the innovation process is a crucial open question. Some inventions, such as the light bulb, temporarily raise productivity growth as adoption spreads, but the effect fades when the market is saturated; that is, the level of output per hour is permanently higher but the growth rate is not."
July 16, 2025
On the web
Fednow® Service Progress Update: Two Years of Growth, Innovation
FRB Services
"Happy birthday, FedNow Service! The pace of adoption on the FedNow Service since we launched two years ago has been incredible. We currently have more than 1,400 participants, up from 900 banks and credit unions at our one-year anniversary, and the network keeps growing every day. Along with adoption, we’re seeing volume continue to rise, and the number of senders — ranging from the biggest banks to the small credit unions — steadily climbs."
July 15, 2025
Top Post
Federal Reserve Financial Services Completes ISO® 20022 Migration for Fedwire® Funds Service, Advancing U.S. Payments Modernization
Federal Reserve
"Federal Reserve Financial Services announced the completed migration to the ISO 20022 message format for the Fedwire Funds Service, a major advancement in the evolution of the nation’s payments infrastructure. As global e-commerce grows and evolves, broad adoption of this new message format aligns U.S. payment transactions with an industry standard that enables greater end-to-end efficiency of transactions, further encouraging innovation across the payments landscape."
July 14, 2025
Top Post
Fedwire Adopts ISO 20022 Standard for Faster Payment Transfers
AInvest
"The Federal Reserve has completed the transition of its Fedwire Funds Service to the ISO 20022 messaging standard, a move that aligns the U.S. with other regions that have already adopted this standard. This shift is expected to enhance the efficiency and interoperability of payment systems, offering richer data capabilities that enable more detailed and structured information exchange between financial institutions. The new standard is anticipated to facilitate better fraud detection, improved straight-through processing, and enhanced data analytics, ultimately leading to more efficient and secure payment transactions."
July 9, 2025
On the web
Intelligent Routing via Payment Hubs
Cleveland Fed
"A payment hub is a centralized technology platform that acts as a financial institution’s center for payment processing and connectivity. There are several potential benefits of payment hubs, including more efficient orchestration of different payment types across various payment rails (that is, payment clearing and settlement systems), reduction in payment processing costs, increased automation rates, and decreased compliance incidents (Chinnapa, 2025)."
July 8, 2025
On the web
Innovations in Payments Acceptance Play Out in Consumer Check Use
Atlanta Fed
"Consumers avoid using checks for many reasons, as reported in the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. Consumers rated checks poorly for convenience, security, and speed of payment. Instead, we say we prefer to use cards or an electronic method to pay both purchases and bills. But there's another side to the decrease in the share of consumer payments via check: the payee's increased capacity to be paid by other means."
July 7, 2025
Top Post
Confirmed: ISO® 20022 Will Be Implemented July 14 for the Fedwire® Funds Service
FRB Services
"For the past several years, Federal Reserve Financial Services has worked with the industry to prepare for the upcoming ISO 20022 implementation for the Fedwire Funds Service on July 14, 2025. As announced on June 18, FRFS will move forward with implementing the new ISO 20022 message format on July 14, as planned."
June 17, 2025
Top Post
One Month to Go! Have You Finalized Your ISO® 20022 Preparedness and Contingency Plans?
FRB Services
"In less than one month, Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) will transition to the ISO 20022 format for the Fedwire® Funds Service on July 14, 2025. As part of your overall readiness preparations for the upcoming migration, we highly recommend that you finalize your preparedness and contingency plans as soon as possible. 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."
June 16, 2025
On the web
The Rise of Embedded and Invisible Payments
Atlanta Fed
"...Invisible payments —often requiring no active authorization step at all. Transactions are triggered automatically using sensors, account credentials, or behavior data. At Amazon Go stores, cameras and radio frequency identification technology track what you take, and your account is charged as you walk out—no checkout, no tapping, no scanning. Sam's Club has introduced a "scan and go" system that allows shoppers to scan items with their phones and skip the checkout line. Over the past three years, use of this feature has grown by 50 percent , with one in four customers now using it."
June 3, 2025
On the web
By the Numbers: Decline in Consumers' Use of Paper Checks
Atlanta Fed
"Do consumers like checks? We seem to write them often enough. In October 2024, the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found that one-third of US consumers had paid with a check in the previous 30 days."
May 29, 2025
Top Post
Federal Reserve Board Issues Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 Report
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board issued its Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 report, which examines the financial circumstances of U.S. adults and their families. Overall, the report shows that financial well-being was similar to the previous two years as concerns about prices persisted and labor market conditions remained solid."
On the web
Card-Not-Present Fraud Rates in the United States After the Migration to Chip Cards
Kansas City Fed
"Unlike many other countries, the United States did not see a surge in the “card-not-present” fraud rate immediately after migrating to chip-card technology. Instead, the U.S. card-not-present fraud rate of non-prepaid debit cards has increased gradually over the past decade. Merchants’ and cardholders’ card-not-present fraud loss rates have increased for both dual- and single-message networks, while issuers’ card-not-present fraud loss rate has increased for single-message networks."
May 20, 2025
On the web
More US Consumers Use Cash than Any Other Way to Pay
Atlanta Fed
"At checkout, our wallets are also stuffed with choices. The typical American has many ways to pay: card or bank account info stored in mobile apps, direct payments from a bank account, physical cards, money stored in apps, cash, and more. In 2024, more US consumers had payment cards than had bank accounts, according to the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice."
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."
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