As instant payments go global, new risks emerge: banks must prepare

A new white paper from global digital banking infrastructure firm RS2 describes the rapid adoption of Instant Payments world-wide, predicting that one in three consumer payments will be instant by 2029.

Global payments go instant

In an earlier blog, RS2 show how instant schemes in Asia and Europe are joining forces to promote faster economic growth between countries.

The new white paper also discusses the rise of instant payments in e-commerce, pointing out that 30% of all digital transactions in Europe will be instant by 2027.

New opportunities – and new risks …

The RS2 paper explains that Instant Payments have become so popular they are now linked to a range of new payment types powered by Open Banking.

In Europe and North America, Account-to-Account (A2A) payments have experienced strong growth through API connectivity between banks, while new payment types such as request to pay (R2P) – in which companies are permissioned to take instant debit payments from consumer accounts – are also forging ahead.

In all these examples, Instant Payments generate greater transaction risk as settlement occurs rapidly after funds leave the payee account, making KYC and AML routines more challenging and raising questions over liability in the event of fraud.

“Scams linked to Authorized Push Payments have rocketed, such that APP fraud now accounts for 75% of all digital payments fraud.”

In particular, the new white paper highlights Authorized Push Payments, or APPs, as one example of new risks generated by instant payments. APPs enable consumers to authorize an instant payment, either one-off or regular, to a company or other organization.

In recent years, scams associated with APPs have rocketed, such that APP fraud now accounts for 75% of all digital payments fraud, and is predicted to hit $5.25 billion in the US, UK and India by the end of 2026.

Furthermore, other high-growth fraud types such as Account Takeover and Synthetic ID fraud are particularly risky in an instant payment environment where the transfer of funds – and therefore liability – happens immediately.

Why banks must prepare for an Instant future explains what banks need to do to prepare for a future centred on cross-border, digital payments.

In particular, the white paper considers long-standing and emerging challenges faced by banking technology, from legacy systems that are expensive to maintain through to operational challenges such as the provision of liquidity for instant settlement, managing high-volume, multi-currency transactions, compliance, regulation and more.

Download a free copy of the new white paper from RS2 now  for more on how the rise of global payments are going to impact the way banks do business in the 2030s.

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