Payments Watch

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve made available a summary of the 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study. I have used these results, as well as previous payments studies to update the Payments Watch payments model. Preliminary results from this model are predicting that (for the United States) debit card use may surpass checks paid as early as this year, and that ACH and credit card use may both surpass checks paid by 2009.  Longer term, at current trends, the model is predicting that checks as we know it may cease to exist before 2020.

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I have often wondered, why can’t consumers also take advantage of a “positive pay” feature on their checking accounts.
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This following article describes an interesting account attack using the ACH network that could allow unauthorized debits of one’s checking account:
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