Real-time Payments’ Potential For E-Commerce

Instantaneous transfers of money from a payor to a payee are known as real-time payments. Trendy, and for good cause, is the subject. Particularly for merchants dissatisfied with their bank’s policy of holds and reserves, the promise of rapid settlements and access to funds is alluring.(ecommerce payment solution)

A variety of quick money transactions fall under the umbrella of “real-time payments.” The actual meaning comprises:

the instantaneous transfer of money from a payor to a payee—not over the course of minutes, hours, or even days. An “instant settlement” is what it is called.

No reservations, holds, or usage restrictions are placed on the recipient’s access to the entire transfer amount.

Permanent transfers. The sender cannot call back or cancel a real-time payment once it has been sent and received.

Cases of Use(ecommerce payment solution)

Real-time payments have five common use cases.

Real-time settlements for businesses, who would gain a lot if they could use the money in their merchant account right away for things like paying bills, paying personnel, and buying supplies. Depending on the size of the reserve, the amount of cash, the merchant’s account status, and the type of business, the majority of accounts require a hold period, which can range from one to 14 days.

Because acquiring banks (i.e., merchant account providers) must ask and obtain authorizations from issuers and other players in the payments ecosystem, merchant accounts are traditionally not settled in real-time. To guard against chargebacks, acquirers also restrict instant access to money.

A few merchant account providers now provide real-time settlements in some capacity to support smaller, independent enterprises in the face of the pandemic. The most notable is Square’s Instant Payments service, which enables businesses to pay employees using the balance in their Square accounts. But much more could be done. Although the technology is available and has great potential, its adoption has been sluggish.

Payments sent in real time to freelancers, contractors, and employees. Settlements that are sluggish and burdensome hurt more than just merchants. Due to delayed payments, employees, contractors, and freelancers frequently struggle. The procedure might be sped up by real-time payments. For a nominal price, a Lyft driver, for instance, may use Express Pay to withdraw his earnings prior to the regular weekly deposit.

Swapping out paper checks. Real-time payments, as opposed to the much-maligned paper checks, which are expensive to manufacture, deliver, and process, enable insurance companies, governments, and other organisations to significantly reduce costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Paper checks are the focus of fraud. They are slow to receive and simple to lose.

International payments.(ecommerce payment solution)

It is inconvenient to send and receive money across international borders. Given the development of the internet, it is typical for international money transfers to take two weeks or longer to settle. International money transfers can be sped up by real-time payments without sacrificing security. In fact, the company’s platform for real-time payments, Visa Direct, has been promoted as a potential alternative to MoneyGram and Western Union for some cross-border money transfers.

Peer-to-peer payments are well-liked as a convenient, secure, and economical way to send money from one person to another without having to deal with cheques or cash. P2P payments can occasionally—but not always—be categorised as real-time payments. Once more, a legitimate real-time payment enables quick transfers and immediate, unrestricted access to all the cash. Most P2P apps send money instantaneously, but not all of them give users access to it right away.

Instantaneous Networks(ecommerce payment solution)

Real-time payment capabilities have been made possible by a number of technologies, and many more are in the works. Here is a list of the most well-known real-time payment systems.

OCTs (original credit transactions) are used by Visa Direct and Mastercard Send in their real-time payment networks. OCTs credit money to a payee’s card from a payor’s credit or debit card. They have a similar idea to a refund, where a business credits a customer’s credit card account with money. Only Visa or Mastercard accounts can receive OCTs; bank accounts are never eligible.

Visa Direct and Mastercard(ecommerce payment solution)

Send are becoming the preferred methods for businesses, governments, and technology providers to send payments instantly. Within seconds, money is transmitted to the cardholder, and the receiver can start using it right away.

The RTP Network enables real-time account transfers between U.S. institutions and their clients. The Clearing House Payments Company, a for-profit partnership of sizable banks and financial organisations, developed the RTP Network. Instantaneous settlement for real-time money transfers is supported by all participating banks.

B2B payments predominantly use the RTP Network. Since it requires keeping sizable reserves at a Federal Reserve Bank and investing in personnel and technology to operate and expand the service, not all institutions are members. A whopping 56% of Americans with checking accounts are qualified to receive real-time payments through the RTP Network. Due to the financial burden and desire to maintain their autonomy from the massive competitors who dominate the network, smaller financial institutions have been hesitant to sign up.

Service FedNow. Real-time transactions are required for a robust payments environment, according to the Federal Reserve. The Fed is also aware that many accounts aren’t able to participate since smaller institutions are reluctant to join the RTP Network. As a result, the Fed will have its own real-time payments network called FedNow Service, which will function similarly to the RTP Network. Regrettably, FedNow won’t be available until at least 2024.

Challenges

There is a lot of potential for real-time payments to benefit retailers. Before such payments are commonplace, there are obstacles to be overcome.

Protection of privacy and security.

The threat of security lapses, hacks, and account takeovers (including phishing and social engineering attempts) will increase as more people utilise real-time payment networks.

Fraud.

The networks will need to develop procedures and tools to thwart fraudsters because real-time payments are immediate and irrevocable (they cannot be cancelled).

Unbroken integrations.

Platforms for real-time payments will need to interact with other crucial corporate systems including accounting and cloud-based management tools. Real-time payment facilitation alone is insufficient.

Regulations.

Real-time payments will require revisions to laws and regulations that prohibit money laundering and other unlawful financial activity, such as the selling of illegal drugs and weapons.

Fees.

It’s difficult to predict whether real-time payment prices will go up, down, or stay the same. However, one can be sure that maintaining these systems will be expensive, and end users will ultimately bear the expense.

Online fraud is on the rise

According to an Experian research, “this past year, we observed more than a 30% increase in ecommerce fraud attacks compared to 2016,” with 16.7 million reported victims of identity fraud, “it was another record year for the number of fraud victims.”

Two stand out among the many theories as to why ecommerce fraud is on the rise.

First, it’s possible that the EMV chip installed in physical payment cards is moving in-store fraud online.

Today, almost all large stores have altered their point of sale payment systems, and 90% of credit cards have chips in them, according to Matt Tatham, manager of content insights at Experian Consumer Services.

“The good news is that since retailers began accepting chip-enabled cards, Visa has discovered a 52 percent decrease in card fraud. The bad news is that fraudsters are moving their operations online, where a physical credit card is not required.

The availability of customer data that has been taken could serve as a second fraud motivator. Despite a decline in reported data losses in the first quarter of 2018, 686 data breaches were recorded in the first three months of this year, exposing more than 1.4 billion vulnerable records, according to a research by IBM SecurityIntelligence.

A significant amount of ecommerce fraud could be made possible by more than a billion stolen records in just three months.

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