Youth Sports: Don’t Wink At The Ref — Just Pay Them Faster

Faster payment schemes are advancing worldwide, with the global real-time payments market expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent between 2019 and 2025. Slovenia is due to see an instant payments platform launch from Bankart this month, while Malaysia has a new solution of its own, enabling instant credit transfers to bank accounts using details such as mobile phone numbers or national IDs.

The February Faster Payments Tracker , powered by Fiserv, examines the latest instant payment solutions around the globe, as well as how companies are tapping them to support supply chains and other operations.

Around the Faster Payments World

As faster settlement options proliferate, companies are seeking to utilize real-time solutions to support global supply chain payments.

U.K.-based payment processing company Mercury FX, for one, recently leveraged RippleNet to facilitate a high-value, cross-border supply chain payment. The payment, sent instantly to Mexico, was made by food production company Mustard Foods, and saved the company both time and money.

Elsewhere in the U.K., payment services company SafeCharge made moves to help its clients expand into the U.S. market. SafeCharge partnered with U.S.-based Mazooma, a FinTech focused on online gaming and sports betting, to give its clients access to Mazooma’s real-time, bank-data verification solution and ACH payments.

New initiatives are also rising in the U.S., including one from TD Ameritrade, a Nebraska-based brokerage firm. The company’s solution enables its customers to use debit cards, linked with Apple Pay and Apple Business Chat, to transfer funds into a brokerage account, where funds are immediately made available for trading.

Find these and the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker.

How Swifter Sports Payments Keep the (Soccer) Ball Rolling

Inefficient payments are all too common in the $17 billion youth sports industry, where paper-based processes can cause problems, ranging from slow compensation to referees to human error in manual reconciliation. In this month’s feature story, CEO Alex Alt of Stack Sports explains how the company is leveraging a software development kit to facilitate payments directly to referees’ bank accounts through a mobile or web-based platform.

Get the full story in the Tracker.

Deep Dive: Security in the Time of Faster Payments

As real-time payment schemes spread worldwide, stakeholders need to examine the impact these rails will have on their risk management strategies. Irreversible, instant payments can provide greater security to small businesses and retailers by easing their cash flow struggles, and removing concerns over transaction reversals and reconciliation. However, new payment rails are also opening new lines of attack for fraudsters.

This month’s Deep Dive explores the advantages and challenges associated with real-time payment schemes, and strategies for managing risk.

To read the Deep Dive, download the Tracker.

About the Tracker

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