2017 has been the year of Instant Payments. Regulators and industry bodies around the world launched more Instant Payment systems than ever before. 2016 saw five new systems launch.
In 2017 this more than doubled to eleven systems including a number of high profile initiatives such as SCTInst in Europe and The Clearing House in the United States. We also saw headline grabbing Instant Payment service launches such as Zelle which is competing other major mobile P2P services like Venmo.
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This groundswell of adoption is being driven by one fundamental principle – archaic, batch-based payment processing can no longer support the ambitions of financial institutions globally nor the customers that they serve.
Put simply, if consumers can monitor the progress of their Uber driver in real-time today, they should be able to do the same with their payments.”
PSD2 is still 18 months from reality
January will be a false dawn for PSD2. While the long awaited Regulatory Technical Standards that underpin PSD2 Access to Accounts will finally be ratified in October, there is still a lack of clarity around numerous areas of the regulation making practical implementation near impossible.
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By GlobalDataI expect confusion will reign for at least 18 months and it will be mid-2019 before PSD2 compliant services are launched.
The industry is highly focused on this issue, it’s all you hear about at events and all you read about in the media. The real danger with this regulatory incoherence around is not just the delay, it’s the loss of momentum.
Without the ability to implement, many banks will take the opportunity to sit back and wait after three years spent getting them out of their chairs. But this is a mistake.
Pioneering banks, despite the technical challenges, are pushing ahead with implementation and laying the ground work for change under their own steam rather than waiting for the rest of the world to move forward.”
Tom Hay is head of payments at Icon Solutions
