IBM Makes The Real-Time Payments Move

On Monday (Sept. 26), the tech giant launched new offerings to help commercial banks support real-time payments for its customers. With new immediate payment schemes in place, banks across the U.S., Europe and Asia will have the ability to clear consumer transactions in seconds.

Once it’s available, the IBM Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Immediate Payments will speed up the access to funds and support various global payment initiatives, such as The Clearing House (TCH) in the U.S. and Europe’s Pan-European Instant Payment scheme.

“For banks to stay relevant, they must be prepared to engage in real time, where and when it’s convenient for the customer, on their device of choice, and using the latest and most accessible systems,” Likhit Wagle, global industry GM for IBM banking and financial services, said in a press release.

“With today’s announcement, IBM is helping financial institutions prepare for immediate payments and innovate with the latest APIs and mobile services, while protecting the security and privacy of sensitive customer data.”

The new version of FTM, combined with IBM Safer Payments, will look to improve the fraud analysis piece of immediate transactions using cognitive computing.

“Safer Payments applies machine-learning models to help analysts detect fraud so they can act quickly to reduce fraudulent events,” the statement added.

Last week, it was announced that TCH chose IBM servers to power the hardware of its real-time payments infrastructure. IBM’s Power8 infrastructure will host the platform in the U.S., the companies announced.

The rollout to major banks in the U.S. next year will be “a revolution in the payments market,” according to TCH CIO Tom Statnick, who added that it will “provide a hub that is accessible to all financial institutions and allow customers to use their existing accounts at financial institutions to send and receive payments.”