Payments On Fire

A Global Phenom Realtime Retail Payments (RTRP) systems are a global phenomenon. These systems exist or will soon in over 50 countries around the world. Some have been in operation for decades. The UK’s Faster Payments system, operated by Mastercard’s Vocalink unit, has been in operation for over ten years. Still others are still in the design stage. These account-to-account systems (A2A) have gained in regulator popularity because: They are fast. The receiver has near instant availability They are push payment systems. Transactions don’t take place unless the sender has enough money to fund the transaction. In other words, authorization takes place before the transaction User authentication is up to the financial institution These systems operate year round, 24x7 They are inexpensive. Transaction pricing is fixed, regardless of the value of the payment itself They have rich data carrying capability Some include a new message type called Request for Payment, essentially a digital invoice message that prompts