PaymentsJournal

Instant payments systems have gained traction in countries that had cash-based payments infrastructures. While services like FedNow and the RTP network have launched in the U.S., instant payments haven’t taken hold due to the firmly established financial system. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Abeer Bhatia , CEO of Personal Lending & Head of Enterprise Payments at Wells Fargo, and Elisa T...

Organizations turn to fintechs for payment solutions that are as efficient and seamless as the transactions they facilitate. However, behind these smooth interfaces lies a labyrinth of challenges. Security concerns, regulatory compliance, and constant technological upgrades are just a few of the hurdles fintechs must navigate to provide what appear to be simple solutions. For clients, the expectat...

With gift card spend projected to reach $267.3 billion by 2028, it’s clear that gift cards  are an influential force in the market. And the rise of digital gift cards, a trend that continues to gain momentum, is opening up new avenues to engage younger generations. During a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Blackhawk Network’s (BHN) Sarah Kositzke , Director of Research and Hilary Spidaliere ,...

Reconciliation is an essential aspect of the accounting process that improves transparency, maximizes decision-making, and ensures regulatory compliance. However, many merchants and payments organizations still rely on inefficient processes that can result in errors, financial losses, or violations. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Nick Botha , Global Payments Sales Manager at Autorek , and Do...

The United States is a unique banking market, with more than 11,000 financial institutions and some of the most stringent regulations in the world. With the launch of FedNow last year, The Clearing House’s RTP network, and a new messaging standard in ISO 20022, U.S.real-time payments have finally arrived. There’s only one problem: The infrastructure here is not ready.  In a recent Paymen...

The end-of-the-year flurry of holiday shopping is a classic example of business seasonality. As fraud professionals have long observed, fraud activity also follows seasonal patterns, with seasonal upticks and slow-downs. The challenge has been reacting to seasonality with precision in real-time, instead of just recognizing them in the rear-view mirror. And new data shows that this seasonality does...

Now that the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 4.0 has gone into effect, merchants have a year to conform to the 63 new or updated requirements. With many moving parts to the standard, some businesses may struggle to understand their compliance obligations. Simultaneously, they also don’t want to risk creating friction in the customer experience as they introduce the new security measur...

Though most people still refer to prepaid products as gift cards, that term has almost become a misnomer in today’s payments industry. Prepaid cards do so much more than carry gifts—not just for consumers but also for issuers. Savvy businesses use them to drive more consumer spending while increasing brand loyalty.  To that end, Fiserv recently worked with Javelin Strategy & Research on a...

The banking industry infamously divides itself into silos to address different aspects of the business, which can be problematic for customers who think they are dealing with a single entity. This can be especially difficult during onboarding and security checks, when different silos at the bank ask repeatedly for credentials. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Sunil Madhu , founder and CEO of I...

As awareness of the dangers of identity theft grows, it’s important to highlight a particularly insidious threat: stealing children’s identities. Although children have very limited financial activity, this ironically makes them appealing targets for fraudsters.    According to Javelin Strategy & Research, 1.7 million children had their personal information stolen in 2021-2022, resul...

Even though the number of checks written continues to decline, mail theft remains on the rise. Beyond the theft of checks directly from mailboxes, there have been instances of stolen mail trucks. The ease of modifying checks allows criminals to simply wash and modify the payee’s name.  Q2’s positive pay system, used by roughly 550 banks across the country, is on track to stop more...

The evolution of digital card management has given financial institutions new opportunities to cultivate enduring customer relationships. By making consumers’ lives more convenient and complimenting physical cards, so consumers have the options that work for their lives at a particular time, issuers can foster ease of use and brand loyalty, leading to decades-long relationships.   In a r...

As fraud related to artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly sophisticated and accessible, many legacy lines of defense are no longer able to effectively protect financial institutions and their customers. Financial institutions need to take a more proactive approach to fraud. By collecting and analyzing real-time data and using AI to identify patterns, FIs can quickly detect suspicious a...

The rise in e-commerce fraud, combined with consumers’ increasing willingness to file chargebacks, has left issuers and acquirers scrambling to shore up their dispute management processes. With a complicated process that varies depending on the payment network involved, chargebacks have become a huge operational challenge for many merchants. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Cheryl Fitzgarrald...

Successful companies must constantly change to preserve their success, but digital transformation may be the most radical overhaul most of us will ever see. For organizations to make this transformation a success, getting employees on board and fully engaged is a requirement.  As the head of Corporate Strategic Planning and Management for Wells Fargo, Amy Downey understands the optimal ways o...

Cognizant of the rise of credit-push fraud, Nacha has approved a new set of rules aimed at addressing it. Credit-push fraud uses social engineering and email phishing attacks to deceive someone into sending funds to a criminal-controlled account, whether through a compromised business email, vendor impersonation or payroll fraud. In a recent PaymentsJournal Podcast , Michael Herd , Executive Vice...

As businesses strive for innovation, efficiency, and scalability, the path to digitization is fraught with challenges. It’s a journey that requires addressing outdated processes, adopting new technologies, and most important, gaining buy-in from leadership and colleagues. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Reetika Grewal , Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Transformation at Wells Farg...

With the Clearing House’s RTP network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow, the demand for instant payments continues to grow from consumers and small businesses. How can businesses best accelerate this process? Debbie Smart , Senior Product Marketer at Q2, and Keith Gray , Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Clearing House, sat down with Elisa Tavilla , Director of Debit Payments at Javel...

As anti-money-laundering challenges escalate and new liability shifts loom on the horizon for 2024, fintechs must be prepared. Proactive measures are crucial for establishing a firm foothold in the fintech landscape. Reactive approaches will only leave businesses vulnerable to attacks and financial losses. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Matt Herren , Director of Product Management at CSI, an...

The term “fraud” has become a catch-all for some financial institutions, which sometimes downplay these occurrences as mere nuisances rather than genuine threats. However, the stark reality is that fraud has given rise to a multitude of attack methods, each carrying its own nuances and varying degrees of impact on customers and financial institutions.   In an age of escalating cyberattacks, t...

As real-time payments expand globally, financial institutions confront the challenge of modernizing their legacy systems to meet the digital expectations of their customers. The positive aspect is that there’s no need to overhaul core systems. Instead, modern software can relieve core banking systems from real-time demands. During a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Carlos Netto , Co-Founder and CEO...

Open banking continues to spread worldwide and is heading for the United States, in what some have been calling its “smartphone moment.” The infrastructure is falling into place to support open banking, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun safeguarding the consumer protections necessary for this to happen. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Amit Shastri , Senior Director of Pro...

Businesses often recognize that their success hinges on their ability to scale and expand. However, many businesses don’t anticipate the tightening of their profit margins on this journey to expansion. At first glance, it may seem counterintuitive. After all, one would expect that increased growth translates to higher revenue and greater profitability. Yet the reality is that business growth comes...

In 2023, the ACH Network added more than a billion and a half new payments, a year-over-year growth rate of 4.8%. With the economy doing reasonably well, employment levels being high, and payments continuing to migrate away from paper checks and cash, ACH is not just growing robustly but also poised to continue that growth well into the future.  We asked Mike Herd , Executive Vice President o...

No one, from merchants to processors to customers, likes handling disputed payments. Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE 3.0) intends to reduce these pain points . It provides a standardized framework for all parties involved in the chargeback process, enabling merchants to substantiate claims by sharing real-time information and preventing disputes. The latest update to CE 3.0 brought a new round of...