Glossary Cuts Through Jargon About Account-to-Account Payments

A burst of announcements, from Visa’s “buyer-protected” account-to-account (A2A) service in the U.K. to fresh funding for variable recurring payments, has pushed bank-to-bank transfers back onto corporate agendas. Yet the vocabulary can feel like alphabet soup. Below is a glossary that puts the main terms in context, shows how they differ and notes where each stands after the latest news.

Pay by Bank

A checkout option that lets a merchant pull money straight from a shopper’s current account, using open-banking APIs to verify balances in real time. It promises card-like convenience without card interchange. J.P. Morgan and Mastercard switched on a U.S. pilot in late 2023, focusing on billers and recurring spend, while Visa this week added chargeback-style guarantees to its U.K. pay-by-bank rail — an effort to overcome trust hurdles that have slowed consumer adoption.

Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments

An umbrella label for any credit push or debit pull that moves money directly between deposit accounts, bypassing card networks. A2A spans everything from ACH debits to instant-payment rails and relies increasingly on open-banking data for risk checks. Visa’s new service frames A2A as a retail alternative to cards, while corporate treasurers view it as a cheaper rail for supplier payouts.

Wire Transfers

High-value, irrevocable transfers settled through real-time gross-settlement systems (Fedwire or CHIPS in the U.S., correspondent banks plus Swift cross-border). Wires carry the strongest finality and highest fees, making them the workhorse for M&A closings and wholesale liquidity moves. The big change is technical: Swift will phase out legacy MT messages in favor of ISO 20022 formats by Nov. 22, 2025, promising richer data and better sanctions screening.

Automated Clearing House (ACH)

The batch network that underpins most U.S. payroll, bill pay and B2B invoices, ACH is governed by Nacha. ACH is cheap but not instant; settlement takes up to two business days unless firms pay extra for Same-Day ACH. Even so, volumes keep climbing: the network handled 8.5 billion payments worth $22.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, while Same-Day ACH grew nearly 20 percent year on year.

Instant Payments

Rails that clear and settle within seconds, 24/7. In the U.S., The Clearing House’s RTP network targets commercial use cases, while the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service is onboarding banks of all sizes. FedNow said its volumes and participant count continued to “grow sharply” in the first quarter, giving CFOs a path to real-time cash positioning — and giving merchants the speed consumers already expect at checkout.

Open Banking

A regulatory and commercial framework that requires banks to share account data and, increasingly, to initiate payments through secure APIs once customers give permission. In practical terms, it is the plumbing behind pay-by-bank, A2A risk checks and variable recurring payments. The U.K.’s early rollout has made it the test bed; the U.S. awaits a final rule under Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Visa’s decision to bolt buyer protections onto U.K. open-banking rails underscores how far the model has come — and what gaps remain.

Variable Recurring Payments (VRP)

Often described as “direct debit on steroids,” VRP lets a trusted third party pull different amounts from a customer’s account within caps the customer sets. The U.K. already mandates VRP for “sweeping” funds between a consumer’s own accounts; the next frontier is commercial VRP for subscription services and utility bills. In May, 31 banks and FinTechs agreed to fund an independent body to run that workstream, signaling that a broader rollout is finally imminent.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Payments

Consumer-to-consumer transfers, typically routed over ACH for settlement but delivered in real time at the user interface. In the U.S., Zelle processed 3.6 billion transactions totaling more than $1 trillion in 2024, up roughly a quarter from 2023. The network’s scale shows how quickly users embrace A2A when the user experience is slick and fees are nil, and it offers a template for retail pay-by-bank at the point of sale.