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Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

federalreserve.gov

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Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#371

Post by greggyb »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #370
greggyb wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked with several large healthcare organizations in a consulting capacity. You would be laughed out of a room for suggesting SSN or name and birthday as the primary identifier for an individual. All used an internal patient ID. Some had processes that would use an SSN or name and birthday as inputs to an identification procedure. These procedures would invariably include additional steps. It's perfectly reason…

The allocation of a PRN to identify patients is an explicit requirement of HIPPA which was introduced in response to the exact problems you discuss, which were common prior to the change.

This directly contradicts your own prior statement, made in the present tense:

> name and DOB are not unique, but this doesn't stop them being near universally used as primary identifier in healthcare information systems

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#372

Post by ryaniscool »

dboreham wrote: post #317
withinboredom wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even further behind. I still live overseas and use a US bank account for paying taxes, etc. I'm still shocked that it costs me, my family, or someone money to send money instantly. Here when we go out to dinner with friends, someone pays the bill and we settle it with bank transfers within moments.

It's worse than that if the amount is non-trivial. Wells Fargo won't allow you to send an amount over $10k instantly without physically entering a branch.

This is typical around the world. This is probably because it's a very practical way to limit losses if someone did gain access to your online banking.

When I lived in Australia, which I believe has a very modern banking system, I couldn't instantly send more than $5k a day. The one time I needed to send more money, I was fine with going into a branch.

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#373

Post by pacaro »

issa wrote: post #205
madamelic wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always been under the impression it is because the US wasn't bombed to bits during WWII and didn't basically get to re-think infrastructure.

Based on things like the Chicago Fire and the SF Quake, it seems (at least anecdotally) clear that massive destruction has a positive effect on infrastructure down the road.

The Great Fire of London (CE 1666) did this for London too

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#374

Post by jimmaswell »

woodruffw wrote: post #39

Settlement between banks in the United States is astoundingly complicated, for (fascinating, terrifying) historical reasons. FedNow is a huge step towards fixing holes that private companies have been papering over for over two decades. Blatant self promotion: for anybody interested in learning more about the Automated Clearing House system (which FedNow will eventually supplement) and interbank settlement in general…

The complexity of this protocol seems to match its needs. I don't really get the issue. FTP and the file format come off as old-sounding but so what?

Why can't this just be batched faster anyway? Improve the hardware, run the batches every 30 seconds, and it's just like instant systems? I know there must be a reason but I'm curious why it is.

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#375

Post by tehjoker »

triceratops wrote: post #184
tehjoker wrote: post #81

The government will do everything to make the financial system work for banks and nothing to make it work for people.

"The rapid expenditure of COVID emergency relief payments highlighted the critical importance of having a resilient instant payments infrastructure with nationwide reach, especially for households and small businesses with cash flow constraints," said Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard." It sure sounds like this particular thing is good for "the people". It'll take away some business from industries that pr…

There are some minor benefits from faster payments, but I assure you that people with lots of money to move are the ones welcoming this and asking for it.

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#377

Post by awad »

013a wrote: post #367
koopuluri wrote: post #216

I moved to India at the start of the year and there's the Universal Payment Interface (UPI) here that essentially allows a Venmo like interface to transfer $ instantaneously from any bank account to another - by simply using the recipient's phone number or a QR code. There are multiple apps that interface with UPI, and the barrier to entry isn't high - allowing for good competition on the UX. Literally every person I…

US banks have something mostly like this: Zelle [1]; the company behind it, Early Warning Systems, is owned by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Wells Fargo, PNC, basically every bank has a stake in it, and every bank supports it. And it works better than Cash App/Venmo; enter phone number or email address, get an instant direct bank-to-bank transfer, no fees, all from the normal bank app you'd already be…

Today was the day I discovered Zelle was same day deposits as I had just assumed like everything else before it, that there would be 2-3 day settlement. US Banks are comically bad at branding and user experience and the lack of cooperation between them all historically has left a pretty bad taste in the mouth, leading to my own ignorance displayed here.

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#378

Post by triceratops »

tehjoker wrote: post #375
triceratops wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The rapid expenditure of COVID emergency relief payments highlighted the critical importance of having a resilient instant payments infrastructure with nationwide reach, especially for households and small businesses with cash flow constraints," said Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard." It sure sounds like this particular thing is good for "the people". It'll take away some business from industries that pr…

There are some minor benefits from faster payments, but I assure you that people with lots of money to move are the ones welcoming this and asking for it.

You're vastly underestimating the benefits to regular people. You haven't lived in a country with instant, universal electronic payments.

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#379

Post by uchman »

One of the many things that surprised me in the US was seemingly complicated means of transferring cash between bank accounts. This process has been trivial in Nigeria (and some other countries) for a long time now with the NIBSS settlement system. I look forward to hearing about the progress of this project and the possible impact to existing payment services such as Venmo, Cashapp, Paypal...

Re: Fed announces details of new interbank service to support instant payments

#380

Post by jandrese »

megiddo wrote: post #365
dboreham wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse than that if the amount is non-trivial. Wells Fargo won't allow you to send an amount over $10k instantly without physically entering a branch.

The $10K limit is a federal regulatory requirement. You have to fill out paperwork and provide identification that is turned over to law enforcement for review.

As an added note: Don't try to get around this by breaking the transaction up into two $5k payments. That's also against the law.
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