- The Faster Payments Council, which is a US organisation counting industry representatives among its members, has launched a series of working groups designed to help those who are ‘underbanked’ improve their access to payments.
- One group will focus on ensuring that financial services institutions have what they need to improve real-time recurring payment flows, while another will look specifically at the concerns raised by those who fall into the underbanked category.
- A spokesperson for a communities organisation appeared to welcome the move, but cautioned that speeding up payment systems does not always mean that they will improve in quality.
An organisation in the US dedicated to pushing forward the agenda of speedier payment transactions has confirmed that it has set up two new work groups.
The Faster Payments Council will ask the two new work groups – Real-Time Recurring and Financial Inclusion – to research significant areas of potential improvement for the American online money transfer sector.
The Real-Time Recurring working group will focus its energies on finding out what the latest instantaneous cash transfer solutions for business-level clients are.
It will look at what options are available for banks and other financial services organisations.
It will also explore what a speedier payments workflow containing best practice ideas might look like.
The Financial Inclusion group, meanwhile, will explore what the requirements of those who are currently ‘underbanked’ look like.
The term ‘underbanked’ refers to those in the US who have lower-than-usual access to financial services.
The two new groups will join a series of others that focus on separate issues facing the sector, including regulation and fraud.
In a statement, Adam Rust, who serves as senior policy advisor at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, was cautiously welcome of the move.
He added that a significant number of Americans were operating on a “paycheck to paycheck” basis in order to make ends meet – and that the move towards investigating how payments can be made speedier was positive.
“Faster payments stand to offer people the ability to manage their money, track their balances, and make payments like rent and utilities in real time,” he said.
“This capability is essential for those households living paycheck to paycheck who need to make payments immediately to avoid fees and other penalties later,” he said.
However, he also warned that a service having speed on its side was not necessarily equivalent to it being sophisticated or consumer-friendly.
“But faster is not always better, so we need to get strong consumer protections in place to prevent fraud, loss, and abusive practices,” he said.
The Faster Payments Council is membership-based, and it comprises organisations that are already in the sector.
It says that it attempts to find solutions by working together with financial services industry leaders.
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