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Are Payments Fast Enough Already?
Article

Are Payments Fast Enough Already?


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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Overview
  • Visionary

Recommendation

The use of digital payments is widespread in the United States, where transfers amounting to some $1 trillion daily pay for quotidian items like food, clothing, utilities and mortgages. According to financial journalist Charles Davidson, leaps in computing power and the continued development of digital payment technologies would seem to argue for adopting an infrastructure that can deliver faster – even instantaneous – transactions. But some critics want to set speed limits on the transition. getAbstract recommends this overview, written for policy makers and regulators but also of interest to the general reader, for its succinct discussion of a highly relevant and dynamic topic.

Take-Aways

  • In the United States, digital payments are a big business that processes millions of remittances with minimal disruption every business day.
  • Consumer and commercial expectations for faster transactions, and the competitive services that can provide them, continue to increase, as both computing capabilities and digital technologies develop.
  • A Federal Reserve task force has been exploring what a next-generation digital payments network would look like and how it would function.

About the Author

Charles Davidson is a staff writer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.