THE WEEK IN FINTECH v3.17
From realtime to person-to-person and crypto, digital payments continue to change the payments landscape in the United States. Even so, cash is back, to the detriment of one growing business, as covered in this issue’s links.
Corporates are paying attention to realtime payments
“RTP is poised to reshape how U.S. businesses make and receive payments,” reports Treasury and Risk. For the first time in 40 years, “corporate treasury departments have a new option: real-time payments (RTP). Companies can now add a new pipe to their plumbing to accommodate funds transfers that move at unprecedented speeds.”
It won’t be easy. “Faster payments aren’t a fast fix for banks,” writes Bruce Lowthers, COO at bank and payments technology provider FIS in PayThink. “The ability to track funds minute by minute is starting to seem like a true reality, but widespread implementation is not that simple.
P2P payments and the threat to banks
As person-to-person (P2P) payments continue to grow in the United States, “tech giants are posing a huge threat to traditional payments providers by entering the payments space with fast, easy, and convenient digital payment methods for consumers,” reports Aite Group analyst Talie Baker in a new report.
In American Banker, Penny Crossman examines Zelle, the bank-sponsored response to Venmo, the leading P2P app among millennials. It’s fraud problems were overstated this week, it’s faster than Venmo, and it’s challenging for both banks and consumers to onboard.
The future of digital payments visualized
Data analysis tech firm Quid provides a pretty cool look at digital payments in a recent blog post. It categorized companies in its database to represent the largest focus areas in payments, mobile, credit-card, and SMB. Click the chart to view the whole article and another set of industry breakdowns.
Pot is hot
Several recent articles deal with the payment problems and investment potential of weed. Glenbrook Partners payment consultant Beth Horowitz Steel sums the madness up:
Seriously, in 2018 we have legitimate businesses that cannot conduct safe, secure financial transactions? A business that hauls around piles of paper bills in a satchel like it was in the days of Al Capone and Prohibition?
PaymentsSource provides a slideshow on everything you need to know about the “inventive workarounds” required for pot payments.