In 2021, the Government of Canada passed the Retail Payments Activities Act, which required the Bank of Canada, the nation’s central bank, to begin overseeing payment service providers (PSPs). Under the legislation, Canadian PSPs—along with any entities involved in the electronic transfer or storage of funds—must register between November 1 and 15.…

Artificial intelligence has had a dramatic effect across industries in a short time. Accounting is no exception, but there has been speculation of whether AI would replace those working in the profession. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Ted Callahan, Accountant Leader at Intuit, and Albert Bodine, Director of Commercial Payments at Javelin Str…

When the topic is prepaid cards, the store-branded or general-purpose gift cards at grocery stores and retailers might come to mind. However, a substantial number of businesses and organizations continually use prepaid cards for a range of cases, including employee incentives and customer rebates. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Sheryl Shewman…

As of March 10, 2025, ISO 20022 will become the messaging standard for financial services in the United States. Yet adoption continues to be slow among large and small banks, with only about a quarter of American banks already using the new protocol. As some have put it, it’s like waiting until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping. Are fin…

Banks allocate significant resources to fighting fraud, both in prevention and in maintaining reserves for potential losses. No matter how good the performance is, fraud losses remain a burden on their balance sheets. Instnt, under the leadership of CEO and founder Sunil Madhu, has been at the forefront of developing innovative ways to combat bank …

The ATM industry has undergone a dynamic shift that has taken automated teller machines far beyond cash dispensation. As the number of bank branches has declined, both banks and consumers expect ATMs to provide a wide array of services that were once only offered at a teller’s counter. In response to the increased demand for ATM services, financial…

With no relief from inflation in sight, consumers are bracing for an expensive holiday shopping season, especially with only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. To stretch their budgets, consumers will leverage every available method, and merchants’ loyalty programs can save customers money while strengthening brand relationships.…

Access to emergency funds provides peace of mind, especially when many people find themselves scrambling to cover expenses. Given the needs of younger consumers, liquidity and cash flow issues are becoming increasingly important for financial institutions to address. Changing regulations offer financial institutions an opportunity to rethink how th…

The upcoming conversion to ISO 20022 presents both challenges and opportunities for banks. It allows them to drive potential efficiencies by redesigning operational processes around Swift messaging. However, there is also the challenge of data ingestion; banks will need to ensure every tech platform in their stack, particularly reconciliation and r…

Open banking has come to encompass so much that it can be hard to define. At its heart, open banking is about opening consumer financial data—once the sole domain of banks—to third-party service providers that manage the data using APIs. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Vladimir Jovanovic, VP of Innovation at Velera, and James Wester, Co-Head o…