Digital payments are increasingly accepted as norms everywhere, including in the United States. Over $6.6 trillion was spent on digital payments in 2017, an increase of 40% from the previous two years. Given that it is anticipated to exceed $10.5 trillion over the following four years, consumers and businesses are expected to become more demanding. The most recent data on how FIs are implementing swift and seamless cash transfers can be found in Ingo Money’s Money Mobility report from September 2022.
Businesses put a lot of effort into providing seamless services, but cybersecurity concerns are beginning to appear. Finding a balance between the need for impregnable security and client convenience will be a top priority for businesses.
The expectations of businesses and consumers for safe money transfers for purchases, B2B payments, and more are examined in this issue of “Money Mobility Tracker”. Additionally, it looks at how companies are striving to satisfy these requests, the factors that might cause disgruntled consumers to discontinue doing business with them, and how the ongoing threat of digital fraud can undermine these efforts.
Locations near the Financial Mobility Area
In certain situations, P2P payment applications have surpassed the use of traditional checks as one of the most popular payment methods in recent years. The P2P payment app Zelle processed 239 million transactions in 2017, up 26% from the 189 million payments processed in 2016. This is according to new research by Bank of America (BoA). In the second quarter of 2022, 156 million Zelle transactions were made as opposed to 123 million checks, which is a substantial deviation from the usual. The surge in small business use of Zelle, which presently accounts for more than 1.2 million of the 17 million active users of Zelle, is credited by BoA as the cause of this adjustment.
Fraud has been a problem since since banks and other financial institutions (FIs) were established, but as payments become increasingly digitized, con artists have gotten more creative in their techniques. Overall, fraud attempts have increased by 41% year over year, with mobile channels seeing the highest increase at 61%. One of the more popular techniques is opening mule accounts online, and another is double-depositing checks. Both of these leave financial institutions (FIs) in a difficult situation when their consumers realize that money has been stolen. Many FIs place 10-day holds before consumers can access their money, but this is ineffective, said Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo Money. Following this 10-day holding period, several check returns take place, making these payments risky.
