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Showing results 1 to 10 of approximately 39.
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Briefing
The Rise of Buy Now, Pay Later: Bank and Payment Network Perspectives and Regulatory Considerations
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) products offered by fintechs have gained traction among consumers andmerchants in recent years and could compete with credit cards as a payment option. We explore thereactions of banks and payment networks to BNPL products as well as the current regulatory environment.
Briefing
Payments System Research: Our 2020 Vision
In this year’s first Payments System Research Briefing, senior vice president Susan Zubradt reflects on the evolution of retail payments and what lies ahead for the KC Fed’s Payments System Research group.
Briefing
Are Contactless Payments Finally Poised for Adoption?
Two types of contactless payments, near-field communication (NFC) and quick response (QR) code, have seen a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Working Paper
Chargebacks: another payment card acceptance cost for merchants
Although chargebacks are perceived as one of the major cost components for merchants to accept card payments, little research has been conducted on them. To fill that gap, this paper describes the current chargeback landscape by generating detailed statistics on chargebacks for signature-based transactions. Our data are from merchant processors, which, altogether, processed more than 20 percent of all signature-based transactions in the United States. For Visa and MasterCard transactions, chargebacks merchants receive are, on average, 1.6 basis points (bps) of sales number and 6.5 bps of ...
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 ...
Briefing
In the Nick of Time: The Rise of Earned Wage Access
Fintech programs that provide employees access to earned wages ahead of payday have gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although consumers benefit from greater financial flexibility, such programs may involve risks.
Working Paper
Cyberattacks and Financial Stability: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
This paper studies the effects of a unique multi-day cyberattack on a technology service provider (TSP). Using several confidential daily datasets, we identify and quantify first- and second-round effects of the event. For banks using relevant services of the TSP, the attack impaired their ability to send payments over Fedwire, even though the Federal Reserve extended the time they had to submit payments. This impairment (first-round effect) caused other banks to receive fewer payments (second-round effect), leaving them at risk of having too few reserves to send their own payments (a ...
Working Paper
Payments on Digital Platforms: Resiliency, Interoperability and Welfare
Digital platforms, such as Alibaba and Amazon, operate an online marketplace to facilitate transactions. This paper studies a platform’s business model choice between accepting cash and issuing tokens, as well as the implications for welfare, resiliency, and interoperability. A cash platform free rides on the existing payment infrastructure and profits from collecting transaction fees. A token platform earns seigniorage, albeit bearing the costs of setting up the system and holding reserves to mitigate the cyber risk. Tokens earn consumers a return, insulating transactions from the ...