We’re asked to upload images with our phones all the time. Insurance cards, driver’s licenses, checks. And we’ve all experienced the less-than-stellar experience of struggling to get our item exactly in the frame or a multi-step process of needing to crop and rotate so that the image is accepted. [Continue]
Having access to funds in real-time is more important than ever. Community bankers recognize this, and many are actively planning their faster payment strategies to keep up with customer expectations. [Continue]
Are bankers prepared for rising interest rates causing an accelerated fluidity of funds flow? Bankers who buy in to open banking will find that it could be antithetical to their objectives to hold the line on cost of funds as interest rates rise. [Continue]
In March, the White House directed several federal agencies to research the pros and cons of a digital dollar. This raises a host of questions for banks, particularly when it comes to deposits and loans, which, you know, are kind of a big deal. For the general public, I have to think the topic is just generally confusing. Digital payments have been with us for a long time, after all. The type of digital dollar being discussed by the Feds would look a lot to the consumer like the digital money banks move around right now. But the back end of how the money is exchanged would change. [Continue]
My dear mother, who is 92, took issue with a recent column by my esteemed colleague, Justin Dullum, in which he declared the death of the personal check. Of course, Justin is correct; the paper check is a much less common form of payment than it was years ago. But I think my mother is also correct: A lot of people still rely on checks. [Continue]
Gone are the days when a new technology solution or platform could be implemented and then left to run for a decade or more. Nowhere is that more true than in the world of payments, where rising customer expectations and increasing competition from both bank and non-bank actors require a level of foresight and responsiveness that smaller organizations may find difficult to build into their planning. [Continue]
In the COVID-19 era, the merchants I frequent or the coffee shops that dot my commute have gone all-in on cards and touchless payments. Cash is increasingly being rejected by stores for its “filth.” The other day, I placed a $20 bill on a counter to buy a $5 coffee. When the cashier saw the bill, he audibly sighed, slipped on a nitrile glove and picked the thing up like it was a dead mouse. [Continue]
They say the only constant is change, and 2020 represented a sea change. The way we live, work, and yes, pay, has all been upended in many ways. And small businesses have borne the brunt of the upheaval. The numbers tell the depth of the struggle with reports indicating that 60 percent of small businesses forced to shut their doors due to the pandemic will never reopen. [Continue]
With apps and growing demand for mobile payment options gradually pushing cash aside, banks face a conundrum on how to adjust to an ever-changing, competitive marketplace. It comes down to technology, what options the bank goes with, how effectively banks incorporate that into their culture, and how much they invest in it. [Continue]
As it weighed whether to build an electronic payments infrastructure, the Fed received strong encouragement from the community banking industry. [Continue]