“The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), a membership organization devoted to advancing faster payments in the United States, today released a new Faster Payments Interoperability white paper developed by the FPC Network Committee. Interoperability in a faster payment system can help achieve seamless processing – both sending and receiving – of payment instructions across a variety of payment solutions. Available in the FPC’s Faster Payments Knowledge Center, the white paper explores different models that can connect systems together to achieve payments interoperability such as point of origination, network to network, or with an intermediary, and how settlement could work in those models. Settlement is one of the defining characteristics of a payment system because settlement is how the transfer of value from one party to another occurs.”

“Brazil’s central bank will turn on a national instant payments network in November that will allow consumers to make payments and transfers “in a few seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including between accounts of different institutions” using QR codes, NFC, their mobile phone number, email address or taxpayer ID.”

“The Federal Reserve faces a dilemma in constructing a real-time payments system. On one hand, the market seemed to demand faster payments solutions yesterday. On the other, the Fed’s undertaking is complex, so making it work will take time. To address both realities, the leader of the central bank’s project says the Fed has adopted an “incremental” strategy “to bring FedNow to market.” The agency is planning to release the product in stages, with an initial offering coming in 2023 and 2024, followed by additional refinements and services down the road.”

“BMO Harris Bank continues to expand its digital banking capabilities for its commercial customers with their recent launch of Payments with Zelle. The payment service makes it easy and fast for commercial clients to pay individuals in minutes without the banking information required for ACH transactions*. From rebates, to returns, to payroll or insurance payouts, Zelle can be used for nearly any purpose.”

“The specifications have been created with the support of 27 financial institutions from 11 countries and will be made available to payment service providers and their suppliers for their joining preparations.The development work for EBA CLEARING’s R2P solution is on track for a scheduled go-live in November 2020.”

“In a sit-down interview, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester discusses how the FedNow real-time payment system will work alongside a big-bank one, and threats to financial stability.”

“Mastercard has signed up four WHSmith retail brands for Pay by Bank (PbBa), a strong customer authentication-compliant payments service that uses customers’ mobile banking apps and the UK’s faster payments system to let online retailers accept payments direct from shoppers’ bank accounts.”

“Two senior Federal Reserve officials said Tuesday they are committed to rolling out the proposed FedNow real-time payments service as quickly as possible, but they didn’t say the original schedule calling for a launch in 2023 or even 2024 will be shortened. “We will be making every effort, I think, to go sooner if we can,” Esther L. George, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said in response to a question from Digital Transactions News about if the timeline might change. “Our ultimate goal, though, is to make sure that whatever we roll out is going to be a sound foundation for the banking industry to connect to, and that will be our Job 1 as we think about speed.””

“Two Fed officials fielded questions about those topics and more during a 90-minute Fed-sponsored webinar last month. Much of what was discussed wasn’t new, but some new factoids emerged as well as identification of issues that will be getting much more attention as the service develops (“The New Reality in Real-Time Payments,” September). For example, one inquirer asked about FedNow’s cost. The answer is that pricing hasn’t been set. But Kirstin Wells, principal economist in payment studies at the Fed, said a price structure could take its cues from pricing for existing Fed services, such as for automated clearing house transactions, that have participation and transaction fees.”

““I think it’s the way we live today. Everyone wants everything instantly. And because we want instant in our daily lives, we start to want it in our business lives, in parallel to everything else being instant.” He further spoke about how instant payments have existed domestically in the UK since 2008, with the ability to transact at any time of the day, every day. According to Newman, there are over 60 communities worldwide that have adopted instant payments.”

“Vocalink’s Request to Pay solution in the UK is the latest addition to Mastercard’s portfolio. It supports the business’ effort to bring innovation to bill payments and aid consumers. In addition, this latest collaboration builds on previous partnerships, such as the UK Image Clearing System (ICS) for cheques. Business process automation firm Exela will be the first customer to utilise Mastercard’s solution and will release the functionality for its UK customers.”