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There's a more obvious reason, of course: the size of the
Insider’sreport United States, coupled with the 10,000-plus financial
on payments institutions that have to link into any new system makes it
a herculean task getting everyone on the same technology
page.

Another thing: until recently, no real-time payment
networks were available to the masses of banks and
Making payments consumers in the United States. The launches of RTP by
The Clearing House and FedNow by the Federal Reserve
faster have diminished the technological and administrative
hurdles to instant payments. Now the race is on for FIs and
their technology providers to follow through by making
By Patti Murphy payments faster and cheaper for customers.
ProScribes Ink But let's be clear: it's not an either or. Payments do not either
move at the speed of light or by more traditional means.
nstant payments are now the law of the land in The future of payments will be more nuanced.
Europe following the European Union's adoption of
a new instant payments regulation. Banks and other Pay-by-bank: faster, cheaper, more real
I payment services providers that offer standard credit
transfers in euros must offer customers the ability to send Many conversations about faster payments become mired in
and receive instant payments in euros. Any charges cannot technicalities, when the reality is that most consumers and
be higher than those assessed for standard credit transfers, businesses want a system that allows for faster exchanges
according to a statement from the EU. of payments than the legacy systems they have been stuck
with for generations. They would be generally content if
Instant payments, sometimes referred to as real-time payments were made in seconds, minutes or hours.
payments, are payments initiated, cleared and settled in a
matter of seconds. A Federal Reserve study in 2022 found nearly 80 percent of
consumers were interested in leveraging faster payments
Under the new rules, instant payment providers must to pay businesses. More than 60 percent said they want
verify that the beneficiaries' banking credentials and real-time views of their account balances and immediate
names match, and alert payers to any possible mistakes or posting of payments they initiate.
fraud before a transaction is completed. This requirement
also applies to regular transfers, the EU said. Banking and card companies are responding. Mastercard
stated last fall that it is working with JPMorgan Chase
The regulation covers not just traditional financial on a pay-by-bank solution that lets consumers pay billers
institutions, as the European Council agreed to also grant directly from their bank accounts. Verizon is slated to pilot
full access to payment and e-money institutions (PIEMIs) the service, which relies on the ACH payment rails, which
by changing settlement finality rules. "The regulation can deliver payments faster, but within hours not seconds.
includes appropriate safeguards to ensure that the access
of PIEMIs to payment systems doesn't carry additional risk Visa, the largest card network, appears to be taking a go-
to the system," the EU stated. slow approach to open banking.
FIS, meanwhile, is working with Banked, a London-based
The regulation comes now that the EU has succeeded real-time payments network, to combine the benefits of
in creating a truly single market for capital across the real-time payments paired with open banking, where third-
continent. It aims to get investment and savings flowing party financial services providers have direct access to
across all EU states, the statement said. account data needed to complete payment transactions. FIS
was one of the first in the nation to complete certification
Catching up to Europe for FedNow, too.
When it comes to electronic payments, European nations The collaboration with Banked was announced in February,
have always outpaced the United States for many reasons.
Chip cards were in circulation there long before most at about the same time as word was released that the
Jacksonville, FL company was spinning off its merchant
Americans understood these were not cards made of wood
or potato chips. services businesses. The spinoff of Worldpay, which
handled $2 trillion in card payments in 2022, is expected to
take about 12 months, FIS said.
They were necessary because there wasn't sufficient
telecommunications connectivity to support online
payments throughout Europe. FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris expressed
confidence that the spinoff "advances our goal of optimizing
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