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Working Paper
Faster Payments: Market Structure and Policy Considerations
This paper reports on a research effort by Federal Reserve staff to examine market structure implications in the still?emerging faster payments market. The analysis and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not indicate official positions of the Board of Governors or Federal Reserve System. Although this paper offers several considerations regarding the U.S. faster payments market, it does not make specific policy recommendations or provide a view on the potential roles, including service provider or other roles, that the Federal Reserve may play in this market.2 Given the ...
Briefing
Contact and Payment Methods Used for the Top Five Categories of Scams
In recent years, the amount of money U.S. consumers have lost to scams has increased sharply. The contact methods scammers use to reach consumers and the payment methods defrauded consumers use to pay scammers vary depending on the category of scam. However, both the use of social media as a contact method and the use of cryptocurrency, payment apps, and bank transfers as payment methods have increased across the top five scam categories.
Working Paper
Effects of credit scores on consumer payment choice
Anecdotally, a negative relationship between the use of debit cards and credit scores has been reported: Consumers with lower credit scores use debit cards more intensively than those with higher credit scores. However, it is not clear whether credit scores have real effects on consumer payment choice or whether the negative relationship is caused by other factors, such as education or income. ; If credit scores have real effects, a negative relationship between debit card use and credit scores could imply supply-side effects, demand-side effects, or a combination of both. If credit scores ...
Briefing
B2B Payments: Business Processing and Challenges to Achieving Straight-Through Processing
Electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments have the potential to reduce the manual handling required for checks, helping businesses advance straight-through processing (STP). Although businesses face several challenges to adopting electronic payments, partial solutions have emerged that facilitate STP.
Working Paper
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services
US households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in digital payments by considering ...
Journal Article
Do U.S. consumers really benefit from payment card rewards?
Payment card rewards programs have become increasingly popular in the United States. But do consumers really benefit from rewards? In the United States, rewards are paid for primarily by the fees charged to merchants, and merchants may pass on the fees to consumers as higher retail prices. Further, some regulators and analysts claim that rewards may send consumers distorted price signals, which in turn may lead consumers to choose payment methods that are less efficient to society. ; Card networks and merchants have taken opposing sides in the rewards debate. Card networks claim their fee ...
Journal Article
Financial Constraints Among Buy Now, Pay Later Users
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have become increasingly popular in the United States over the past decade, especially among both younger and financially vulnerable consumers. Although BNPL services may help some consumers manage financial constraints by breaking down purchases into smaller installments and providing access to interest-free credit, the smaller, interest-free installments may also lead some consumers to perceive purchases as more affordable than they really are, increasing the risk of overspending, debt accumulation, and even default.Fumiko Hayashi and Aditi Routh examine ...
Briefing
Remote Card Payment Fraud: Trends and Measures Taken in Australia, France, and the United Kingdom
Australia, France, and the United Kingdom have successfully reduced remote card payment fraud rates in recent years. In each of these countries, a self-regulated body, central bank, or trade association has led coordinated efforts to mitigate remote fraud.
Working Paper
Distributional Effects of Payment Card Pricing and Merchant Cost Pass-through in the United States and Canada
Using data from the United States and Canada, we quantify consumers’ net pecuniary cost of using cash, credit cards, and debit cards for purchases across income cohorts. The net cost includes fees paid to financial institutions, rewards received from credit or debit card issuers, and the merchant cost of accepting payments that is passed on to consumers as higher retail prices. Even though credit cards are more expensive for merchants to accept compared with other payment methods, merchants typically do not differentiate prices at checkout, but instead pass through their costs to all ...
Journal Article
Mobile Banking Use and Consumer Readiness to Benefit from Faster Payments
The U.S. payments industry is currently implementing faster payments that will enable consumers and businesses to send and receive payments almost instantly at any time of day, any day of the year. Mobile banking in particular may allow consumers to realize the full benefits of faster payments. As a result, a consumer’s use of mobile banking is a good indicator of their readiness to benefit from faster payments.Fumiko Hayashi and Ying Lei Toh examine which consumer characteristics are associated with mobile banking use as well as what other factors may influence consumer readiness. They ...