The Supply Chain’s Weakest Link: Payments

Getting financial institutions (FIs) on board with accepting real-time payments means assuring that doing so won’t bring any unreasonable risk. At a time when many national faster payment schemes are growing around the world, both in terms of transactions processed and FI participant counts, security has become the top concern for many operating in the faster payments space.

In the June Faster Payments Tracker, PYMNTS takes a look at how these schemes are growing and the new security efforts intended to safeguard sensitive information against increasing attacks.

Around the Faster Payments World

One of the latest security initiatives comes from ACH Alert. The security service provider recently released two offerings focused on advancing ACH credits and payments security. In part, the tools give account holders greater control over approving incoming payments.

Players in the space are also looking at how banks can improve their approach to faster payments security. Fraud experts from Mastercard-owned payment company Vocalink, executive vice president Gary Kearns and director of product management David Divitt, recently outlined their strategy for identifying and fighting fraud in a conversation with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster. The two recommended that banks take a network-wide view and use artificial intelligence and machine learning to foil bad actors’ attempts to launder money or trick bank customers into sending payments.

Other solutions are less focused on identifying attackers and more focused on denying them leverage. A new solution from data technology company Rambus aims to better protect payments information. The company’s solution tokenizes account numbers in an effort to guard credentials in direct debit, direct credit and P2P payments of central banks and clearing houses.

Find more of the latest headlines in the Tracker.

A FinTech Network Approach to Corporate Payments

It’s a small world — and one that’s linked together by supply chains that wind across borders. To keep business uninterrupted, corporations seek to make their supplier payments quickly, and without incurring hefty foreign exchange fees.

In this month’s feature story, PYMNTS caught up with Brian Jamieson, CEO and co-founder of London-based FinTech Centtrip, about how his company aims to enable corporations to make instant domestic and international payments, and its strategy for supporting quick access to 15 different currencies.

In a time when some fear that faster payments could lead to faster fraud, Jamieson also weighed in on security and fraud prevention before funds are even sent.

“Whether it is an instant payment or not, security checks should be undertaken before the money leaves,” he said. “Once it has left, it doesn’t matter if it’s gone over three days, two days, one day or within an hour.”

For the full story, download the Tracker.

About the Tracker

The PYMNTS Faster Payments Tracker is your go-to resource for staying up to date on a month-by-month basis. The tracker highlights the contribution of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.