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Comment by cal5k | Hacker News Reader

The key to keeping debit card fees down isn't to legislate a fee cap, it's to make payment rails more open and competitive.

Why are regulators still attacking stablecoins, for example, when they represent one type of innovation that could actually lower transaction costs? Creating a legislative framework that encourages innovation rather than stifles it would make a lot more sense than trying to micromanage fees.

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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36801491 ("HN: FedNow Is Live")

https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organi...

https://explore.fednow.org/explore-the-city?id=3&building=ne...

$25/month to plug into FedNow instant payment rails, 5 cents to move up to $100k in value (initial limit, max is $500k), 20 second settlement SLA.

This technically exists but can you actually use it? It seems like there are no articles about it in the 2024 calendar year.

I remember reading a really nice screed from walmart last year pushing the fed to turn the screws on rent seekers, but without RFP and ubiquitous participation that isnt going to come about.

bit of a conspiracy here but IMO banks have been observing the fraud rates with zelle, venmo, etc and only tolerating it because an external party gets to be the bogeyman.

In cases of unauthorized Zelle payments, consumers have legal rights and protections under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (also known as "Reg E”). This also applies to FedNow instant payments, which has fraud management services available and includes a closed loop reporting requirement.

You should expect to see instant payment functionality that runs on FedNow rails within banking apps in the next 6-12 months. I cannot share more detail publicly unfortunately, my apologies.

(contribute at a fintech, thoughts and opinions always my own)

One of the bigger product goals for Zelle, I thought (though perhaps not the most publicized), was "moving liability away from banks more to consumers" (not exclusively, but moreso), I thought? I believe there had even been leaked internal presentations on that liability reduction.

Most financial technologies take years if not decades to fully propagate through the system.

Contactless cards in the US for example, first rolled out in 2007.

Yep, FedNow is a good step in the right direction, but the list of banks that participate needs to grow substantially. Many small and mid-sized banks/FIs aren't having a great 2023/2024, so I wouldn't expect to hear much about them integrating with new payment rails until their fundamental economics improve a bit allowing the decision makers to loosen up the purse strings again.

source: have worked in the industry consulting and doing technical design and implementation

I've been amazed at the silence about it.

I work in a firm very closely associated with CC and ACH processors, and I feel like the only time FedNow ever came up was when I mentioned it.

The low cost of acceptance and fast response times would seem to appeal to any merchant who's already begrudgingly accepting ACH, even if it's not a direct replacement for card payments.

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