Payment News
Same-day ACH service FedACH
Jun 28th
The Fed will begin providing same-day ACH settlement for consumer checks converted to ACH and online- or phone-initiated consumer debit transfers starting Aug. 2nd. The duplicate payments between ACH and Check can and will likely appear before a bank can blink its eyes. A cross-channel Day 1 exception processing solution is an imperative in a same-day ACH environment. Maybe a bit of an increase in duplicates and other exceptions, but a definite issue on the timing. Originating banks will enjoy faster settlement of converted payments while the receiving banks will be under the gun to identify exceptions due to early cut-off times. For details on the Fed’s plans: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/other20100621a1.pdf
Frank Stokes of CONIX featured in American Banker
Jun 7th
Frank Stokes, CONIX Systems’ President of Technology, was recently featured in American Banker’s Viewpoint to discuss the risk management of remote deposit capture and image exchange. Stokes discusses the need for earlier identification and resolution of exceptions.
Checks without paper?
Apr 30th
Reporter Andrew Johnson’s article in today’s American Banker (”A New Goal in Payments: Checks Without Paper <http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/175_81/new-goal-in-payments-1018397-1.html> “) makes an interesting point regarding payment processing. In the article, he writes, “The Fed paper suggested that banks could benefit from all-digital checks because they could devote fewer resources to their check systems and could clear check payments faster.” Increasing the velocity of financial transactions by compressing the time to process payments is a worthy industry goal. Clearing check payments as soon as possible could certainly be a boon for banks, but at what cost? Duplicates and fraudulent payments will inevitably find their way into the mix. To insulate themselves from risk, banks need to accelerate exception item processing at the same rate at which they are processing payments. Whether the check is paper, or an image, or 100% digital, any effort at acceleration only strengthens the case for accelerating Day 2 exception processing to Day 1.
“The ISOs are Coming! The ISOs are Coming! The ISOs are Coming!” But at a Slow Pace!!
Apr 21st
The April issue of Digital Transactions
( http://digitaltransactions.net/files/DigitalTransactionsApril10.pdf ) has an article starting on page 20 that examines the struggles most ISOs are having adding Remote Deposit Capture as a new cross-sell product to their existing merchant base. Does the offering by ISOs to bank’s customers cause disintermediation to the banks? Are bank’s defending their turf and offering RDC to the smaller retail merchants?
The risks of mobile banking & consumer RDC
Apr 12th
Daniel Wolfe, American Banker featured reporter, recently published an article (ACH Is Next Frontier for Mobile Phones) highlighting ACH as the next step in the evolution of mobile banking/payments. While enabling mobile phones to connect to the ACH network would certainly bring mobile payments closer to being fully realized, one can only imagine what kinds of additional risks this would create. The banking industry has already seen an increase in duplicate payments and attempted fraud directly related to remote deposit capture. What additional risks can we expect when consumer deposits are added to the mix?
