Pioneers of Now represent engaged financial institutions and service providers united by their commitment to early adoption of the FedNowSM Service (Off-site), which will launch in 2023. This is the second in a series of ongoing Pioneers of Now features (Off-site).
Andrew Haskell is the Director and Product Line Manager for Immediate Payments & Disbursements at BNY Mellon (Off-site). Headquartered in New York City, BNY Mellon is the world's largest custodian bank and securities services company.
According to Haskell, BNY Mellon joined the FedNow Pilot Program to provide corporate, fintech and financial institution clients access to the growing instant payments network on an accelerated timeline.
Q: Do you have any advice for organizations that are in the early planning stages for instant payments?
A: First and foremost is education and awareness. First, educate yourself to make sure you understand all the nuances that come along with real-time payments. They are very unlike other methods of payment today. Once you educate yourself, educate your colleagues and your operations and technology partners. Then, make your clients aware of these new services and promote the features and benefits they can take advantage of.
Q:What are some benefits of being an early adopter of the FedNow Service?
A: Once available, testing with the FedNow Service early in your development lifecycle will ensure your systems can meet the service’s operational requirements and technical specifications. By testing early, you become familiar with instantaneous settlement. Additionally, you will ensure your message formatting and processing are accurate and up to date – even with ISO® 20002 standards, instant payments may be different than other methods of payment within your organization.
Q:What are some of the barriers to instant payments adoption?
A: Awareness that these new services are available and the use cases they support, enhance or create – both for consumers and businesses – is one key barrier to instant payments adoption. Instant payments have dramatically changed the payments paradigm because we have become accustomed to existing payment methods and their limitations. As a society, we have not yet realized or embraced the full potential of real-time payments.
Q: What instant payments use cases are you most excited about?
A: Request for payment messages to support consumer bill pay is the use case that is top of mind for me. We are all consumers, and we all need to pay bills… yet there's a lot of friction, delay and lack of control within that process. Paying a bill instantly or at a scheduled date and time and receiving instant acknowledgement of these payments – from a mobile device or computer – can make this chore much easier and less burdensome in our daily lives.
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