85% of Large Retailers Look to FinTechs for Real-Time Payments Partnerships

Retailers are on board with real-time payments, investing in expanding this method into their B2B payments as demand for payment speed and security grows.
The allure of real-time payments is not lost on retail giants. Nearly all retailers generating $100 million or more in annual revenues have embraced real-time business-to-business (B2B) payments. Fifty-four percent plan to make more of these payments in the next year.

These large retailers value more than just the speed of real-time B2B payments. Firms cited enhanced security and stronger buyer-supplier relationships as significant advantages of using real-time payments.54%: Share of large retailers planning to make more real-time B2B payments in the next year

Corporate Changes in Payment Practices: The Retail Industry is Ramping Up Real-Time Payments,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and The Clearing House collaboration, is based on a survey of 125 executives from retail firms generating annual revenues of $100 million or more. We collected responses from June 6 to June 26. The survey investigated the state of real-time B2B payments in the retail industry. We asked respondents about their firms’ current use of real-time payments and plans for future use, among other topics.

Other key findings from the report include:

81%: Portion of large retailers that say making real-time payments is highly important

Large retailers invest heavily in real-time payments and view them as crucial to their success, signaling a shift in B2B payment preferences.

Virtually all retail firms with annual revenues of more than $100 million have adopted real-time B2B payments. For 81%, making real-time B2B payments is very or extremely important to operations. Retailers generating between $100 million and $500 million are the most enthusiastic, as 89% indicate the method as highly important.

For the retail sector, real-time payments are more than just a quick payment method.

Retailers recognize the benefits that real-time payments have beyond payment speed. For example, 89% of large retailers cite enhanced buyer-supplier relationships as a benefit of this method. Most view the data protection and security of real-time payments as key advantages.90%: Share of firms naming speed as a key reason for making real-time payments

Retailers are more likely to partner with FinTechs than banks for real-time payment innovations.

Our research reveals that 81% of retail firms plan to enhance real-time payment offerings in the next year to meet growing demand. To do this, 85% of retailers say they will likely collaborate with FinTechs. Enthusiasm for partnering with traditional banks and card networks lags, while less than half are considering in-house solutions.

“Corporate Changes in Payment Practices: The Retail Industry is Ramping Up Real-Time Payments” examines the growing adoption and significance of real-time B2B payments among large retail firms. Download the report to learn more about the shift in the retail payments landscape.

CFPB Firings On Hold Amid Lawsuit Against Trump Layoffs

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) acting director has reportedly agreed to pause a mass firing of agency employees.

As ABC News reported Friday (Feb. 14), attorneys for Russell Vought, acting director of the CFPB, reached an agreement during a court conference to postpone the firings amid a lawsuit challenging the regulator’s dismantling.

The agreement bars the CFPB from firing employees for reasons not related to their work performance or conduct, and also blocks the Trump administration from trying to shift funding away from the consumer protection agency.

According to the report U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she will consider issuing a longer-term preliminary injunction at a hearing on March 3. Her ruling came after the CFPB cut its probationary workers as part of the Trump administration’s wide-ranging layoffs.

Unions representing the employees and suing the administration alleged in a court filing that Vought planned to fire more than 95% of CFPB staff. They argued that cuts of this size — or the end of the CFPB altogether — could have drastic consequences for American consumers.

Under the court ruling, the White House is also barred from destroying or altering sensitive records kept by the CFPB.

This came after former CFPB Chief Technologist Erie Meyer alleged in a legal filing that administration officials were preparing to delete databases holding the agency’s data, such as compliance and enforcement records.

“Reports that I have received from within the Bureau reliably indicate that databases holding the CFPB’s data will soon be deleted,” Meyer said in the filing. “If that happens, it would result in the immediate and irrevocable loss of data essential to the agency’s core mission.”

Vought last weekend froze all of the CFPB’s supervisory and examination activities, while also shutting down the bureau’s office and ordering workers to stay home. He’s also pledged to halt the agencys funding, saying he had told the Federal Reserve that the CFPB would not take its next draw of appropriated funding because it wasn’t necessary to fulfill its duties.

The suspension of work by the CFPB left the financial services industry wondering what to do next, PYMNTS wrote last week.

“If nobody’s home, you have financial services entities just trying to make their best guess,” former Obama administration assistant treasury secretary Amias Gerety said Monday as part of his weekly discussion with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.