As the market migrates to real-time (or immediate) payments, use cases include rapid consumer-to-consumer money movement (P2P and A2A), consumer bill payment, business disbursements, enhanced payroll support for select employee groups (SEGs), and accelerated loan disbursement. More specific examples include consumer-to-business, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, government-to-consumer, consumer-to-government.
Immediate payments offer several powerful benefits to individuals, businesses and credit unions.
Consumers can benefit from the flexibility that immediate payments offer, such as the capability to complete emergency payments at the last minute. With this ability, consumers can evade late fees, the risk of account overdrafts, and harm to their credit scores.
Businesses can benefit from enhanced immediate money management and cash flow by using immediate payments. Companies are also less likely to deal with a payment reversal due to insufficient funds because immediate payments typically need the payer to have sufficient funds in their account before the payer can make the payment, and the payee is assured of receiving the funds.
By offering immediate payments, credit unions can stay competitive by better serving their individual and business members, who increasingly want advanced digital banking services. In addition, offering an integrated immediate payment option gives members a wide-ranging set of services that will increase credit union membership.
All these use cases demonstrate benefits for businesses and consumers, but all cases may not apply to every credit union. Therefore, it’s essential to have a basic understanding of those relevant use cases to identify the immediate payment types you should invest in.