At NACHA’s Smarter. Faster. PAYMENTS 2019 conference, The Center for Payments™ announced the results of its first nationwide survey focusing on the current and future payments environment in the United States. The Center for Payments, which was formed by eleven payments associations, is a program focused on propelling the development of the nation’s payments industry.

The session at PAYMENTs was standing room only, with some conference attendees congregating in the hallway to hear the results. Over 700 financial institutions and Third-Party Senders participated in the Future of Payments Study which examined payments strategy, as well as plans and interest in adopting new technologies such as faster payment solutions. Full findings of the survey results will be available to members of the eleven participating payments associations.

Study results indicate that financial institutions of all sizes need guidance with developing their payments strategy, timely information on faster payments, and insights to emerging faster payments solutions. An overwhelming 85% of the organizations surveyed either currently experience a demand for faster payments or expect to experience demand in the next one to two years. Despite the projected demand for faster payment solutions, only 34% of respondents currently have a payments strategy in place to help set payment priorities, inform decision making and focus resources.

In addition, those surveyed feel challenged to keep up with the quick evolution in this industry. Generally speaking, respondents are unsure about their overall readiness for the faster payments evolution and 56% reported using multiple sources of information to drive their faster payments strategy. Only 3% relied solely on internal expertise when developing their faster payments strategy.

The survey results also indicated that core systems providers stand to lose market share to third-party vendors. Only 55% of the organizations responded are confident core-providers will provide the products necessary to respond to payments industry changes and 76% are willing to use a third-party vendor for additional products and services.

“These findings reinforce that U.S. financial institutions are quickly realizing that faster payments solutions are becoming mainstream and they are actively preparing for the opportunities and challenges these solutions present” says Bill Schoch, President & CEO at WesPay and inaugural chair of the Center for Payments. “Financial institutions are really marshalling internal and external resources to ensure an ‘all hands-on deck’ approach with their faster payments planning and execution. This is a role in which the payments associations are prepared to support our members.”

An infographic and high-level survey results can be found at www.centerforpayments.org. The Center for Payments plans to continue efforts of making actionable data needed to improve and grow payments capabilities available to their members.

Source: The Center for Payments