PaymentsJournal

Faster and larger transaction flows have transformed the financial space into a lucrative superhighway, where bad actors can sweep in undetected and make off with substantial and ill-gotten gains. Among the most exploited gateways for fraudsters are account-to-account (A2A) and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment systems. The increasing popularity of these methods for repaying friends, making purchases, or...

With consumers’ growing demand for instant payments, convenience, and immediacy, instant issuance just makes sense. Providing a personalized, on-demand, active debit and credit card that promotes top-of-wallet use as well as boosts security—instead of making consumers wait for their card to arrive in the mail—can be a game-changer. By offering this service, financial institutions are doing more to...

Financial institutions are increasingly navigating a sea of scams and fraud. With the evolution of emerging technologies, new avenues for attack have opened, leaving banks, credit unions, and their accountholders more vulnerable. As peer-to-peer (P2P) payments become an expectation, the risks for banks and credit unions edge higher. The real-time nature of P2P payments and the “relationship” betwe...

Payment processing is much more seamless now than it was even a few years ago. The pandemic accelerated the pace of digitizing payments, and peer-to-peer payment networks continue to grow in popularity. But this has also meant that consumers and banks have faced a growing number of innovative payments scams.   In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Sudhir Jha , Executive Vice Pre...

Validating account information is key to ensuring ACH payments continue to be safe and reliable. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Rob Unger, Associate Managing Director of ACH Network Development at Nacha, spoke with Elisa Tavilla, Director of Debit Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, about payment innovations to help safeguard banks and consumers. They discussed how Phixius by N...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule in October that requires non-depository and depository entities to release certain types of data related to customer accounts and transactions to consumers and third parties. As a result, larger financial institutions will need to adhere to the compliance regulations earlier than their smaller counterparts. Initially, community banks...

Events in the payments space are moving rapidly. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), point-of-sale technology, and real-time payments have left many merchants wondering how to keep up with customer expectations. Jeff Kump , CSG Forte President, and Daniel Keyes , Senior Analyst of Merchant Services at Javelin Strategy & Research, joined a recent PaymentsJournal podcast to discuss the tre...

As any seasoned treasury or finance practitioner knows from experience, organizations dealing with numerous banking partners must account for a broad and constantly shifting range of protocols when it comes to processing payments. For instance, if a business has relationships with six or seven banks spread across the globe, it could easily be looking at 25-plus variants of payment formats.&#1...

Disbursing funds in an efficient and accessible way is critical to a good customer experience. But new economic realities and mobile adoption have challenged organizations to evolve how they pay to meet consumer demands. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, two experts from Blackhawk Network, Sarah Kositzke, Director of Research, and Scott Lapp, Director of Product Marketing and Incentives, along...

Small-business owners want to focus on serving their customers and growing their business, not deal with time-consuming manual processes that come with managing payments and invoices. And they’re not getting the help they need. A recent survey showed that 64% of small businesses were unsatisfied with their current payment offerings, and nearly 20% said they will leave or consider leaving their cur...

In the past decade, the payments industry has experienced more change than in the previous 40 years. The number of payment options for consumers is multiplying, and the adoption of real-time payments is soaring.   While this is an exciting time for the payments industry, financial services companies are facing tough challenges as payment processing requirements become increasingly c...

When it comes to business-to-business (B2B) payments, those funneled through automated clearing house (ACH) rails are increasingly popular.  Although many businesses are still mailing checks as payment, more businesses are seeing the risks and looking toward ACH payments as a cost-efficient and convenient alternative. During a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Brian Holbrook , Director of Produ...

Embedded payments have been a mainstay for consumers for several years due to the rise of digital payments via smartphones and mobile apps. As consumers continue to enjoy the speed, convenience, and security of such payments, the business-to-business (B2B) space has been lagging behind. That is not to say that many businesses are content with this; on the contrary, more businesses would like to se...

The rapid improvements in the payments industry over the past decade have had the unfortunate side effect of making money laundering more of a challenge for institutions to detect and deter. With a greater number of methods for exchanging money and with most transactions happening digitally, it has become harder to chase after money launderers’ latest tactics. According to the UN’s Office on Drugs...

As financial fraud continues to become more intricate and more commonplace, and risk remains a deterrent for innovation, the inadequacies of “black box” solutions of third-party fraud vendors are coming to light. To effectively detect and mitigate fraud – and protect the FIs, their customers and their shareholders — banks need full transparency into the strategies, tactics and performance of...

Although artificial intelligence has been one of the hot topics of the past year, it has been around for a very long time, dating to the 1940s. Over the past 20 to 30 years, there have been many permutations of what is often called traditional AI—and not just in the world of finance. Now, we’re living through a new boom of the technology in the form of generative AI. Billtrust, a B2B order-to...

As the holiday season approaches, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have an uphill battle to secure their piece of the sales pie. But the key for SMBs to win this year’s Q4 is not to play the same game as the major retailers but rather to play to their niche and delight their customers with an exceptional, personalized experience. During a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Nitin Prabhu, Gener...

Faster payments have plenty of benefits for businesses and consumers, but the technology has also opened the door to a new breed of fraud: authorized push payment (APP) fraud. Banks and their customers have taken a considerable financial beating due to APP fraud. As losses soar, FIs are struggling to get a handle on this increasingly sophisticated fraud scheme, which could mean a loss of customers...

In a world of immediate payment options like Venmo and Zelle, most U.S. banks are still using the same payment-processing technology they installed in the 1980s. Consumers have come to embrace real-time payments, looking increasingly to digital-first nonbank financial players for increased speed and convenience. It has created a landscape where many legacy banks are lagging behind both their...

Acquirers, processors, and payment facilitators (PayFacs) are grappling with a host of challenges involving risk—including sophisticated fraud attempts—that demand innovative solutions. These industry players must harness cutting-edge technologies to strengthen their risk management strategies and ensure the integrity of the payments ecosystem.    In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Amy...

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and consumers and retailers are gearing up for what’s to come in the world of gift-giving. The economic roller coaster of the past year has given rise to a cautious but optimistic consumer mindset where value and deals reign supreme. Changing consumer sentiment is driving retailers to adapt and provide attractive incentives to draw shoppers in. Not...

Gen Z is embracing emerging technologies as a form of payment at checkout more than their older cohorts, particularly when it comes to mobile wallets. That’s according to PSCU’s 2023 Eye on Payments research, which—for the sixth year in a row—set out to gauge just how much payment preferences have evolved. During a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Tom Pierce , Chief Marketing Officer at PSCU, Norm...

Payment processing has turned into an intricate web of challenges for many merchants and payment service providers. Various factors—payment types, channels, and geographical influences—have created a complex ecosystem where managing transactions and ensuring financial accuracy can feel overwhelming.   Because payment processing comprises various payment types and sales channels, merchant...

The holiday season can be a joyous and profitable time of year for merchants. But, if merchants do not take a proactive approach to protecting their enterprise against fraud, they could find themselves struggling to keep up with ongoing challenges. Although fraud is repeatedly characterized as simply a cost of doing business, the attitude and approach toward fraud should not be carelessly indiffer...

Speed and convenience are the name of the game in the consumer checkout experience. However, a checkout experience can quickly turn sour when a customer experiences payment friction. Payment friction is any type of obstacle that prevents a customer from making a final purchase. This can involve a complicated checkout form, few payment options or having to enter numerous personal details. This is b...