U.S. Faster Payments Council Publishes Beneficial Characteristics of Real-Time Recurring Payments White Paper
For Immediate Release
May 27, 2022 – The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), a membership organization devoted to advancing safe, easy-to-use faster payments in the United States, today released its latest white paper, Beneficial Characteristics of Real-Time Recurring Payments. Sponsored by BNY Mellon, the FPC Real-Time Recurring Work Group developed the new paper which explores the specific characteristics required in a recurring payment program that maximize the benefits of faster, real-time payments for payers, payees, and all participants in the payments ecosystem.
A recurring payment, also known as a standing order, is an instruction or set of instructions a bank account holder gives to their bank to pay a set amount at regular intervals to another’s account. Real-time recurring payments have both the benefits of real-time payments—being instant, final, and irrevocable—as well as the customer benefits of frictionless recurring payments. Given the rapid growth in subscription services over the past few years, the need for real-time recurring payments has become essential to allow for various industry verticals to expand into real-time payments.
“There are many real-life use cases across the board for recurring payments, not just in e-commerce but for insurance, utilities, and investments,” said Josh Karoly, Director of Payments at Netflix and FPC Real-Time Recurring Work Group Chair. “Our work group wanted to develop a real-time recurring workflow for faster payments that could be used in any applicable use case; identify the approaches and best practices out there today; and determine what kind of implementation guidance we could provide. This paper summarizes our findings and we’re thrilled to provide it as a new resource for the faster payments community.”
The scope of the Beneficial Characteristics of Real-Time Recurring Payments paper addresses the beneficial characteristics of a real-time payment as a payment option specifically for the billions of recurring payments that happen in the United States. The real-time payment option, by design, ameliorates many shortcomings associated with recurring payments by supporting a faster and more convenient customer experience for the user and by simplifying merchant back-end processing.
“Members of our work group come from a variety of backgrounds including banks, card brands, fintechs, and merchants, and it was really interesting to hear all their perspectives,” said Hope Hacker, AVP/Assistant Treasurer at Nationwide and Vice Chair of the Real-Time Recurring Work Group. “Now that we’ve published this guide on real-time recurring payments, the next step is to work with those in the industry who are looking to build this type of solution and share our lessons learned.”
“Greater control and transparency are pre-requisites for widening adoption of digital payment channels,” said Carl Slabicki, Co-Head of Global Payments for BNY Mellon. “We’re excited to be partnering with the industry on establishing standards for real-time e-billing, which deliver on those goals and improve the overall consumer experience.”
The FPC prioritizes inclusion of diverse perspectives in tackling complex topics such as interoperability, identifying real-world solutions that can ease adoption of faster payments, managing security risks and fraud threats, addressing barriers to financial inclusion and cross-border payments, and more, as the organization paves the way toward a future of faster payments for all. For more information on the FPC, its current work efforts or to join, visit FasterPaymentsCouncil.org. Contact: Elizabeth Grice U.S. Faster Payments Council 720-737-7368 egrice@fasterpaymentscouncil.org About the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose vision is a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. By design, the FPC encourages a diverse range of perspectives and is open to all stakeholders in the U.S. payment system. Guided by principles of fairness, inclusiveness, flexibility and transparency, the FPC uses collaborative, problem-solving approaches to resolve the issues that are inhibiting broad faster payments adoption in this country. For more information, please visit FasterPaymentsCouncil.org.