Innovation Pays
Innovation by America’s banks, payments companies and technology firms has made our country’s payments system the most secure, convenient and accessible in the world.
Thanks to collaboration between banks and merchants, consumers today can safely pay online or in person in whatever way they choose—whether it’s cash, check, card, smartphone or smartwatch.
America’s payments system is working, and is proof that Innovation Pays. Competition and collaboration— not government mandates—will keep the system secure, convenient and accessible.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
In an increasingly global economy, American companies are playing a crucial role in collaborating on payments standards that make these new technologies compatible everywhere.
Chip and contactless technology
EMV-powered chip cards and contactless payments protect personal information through encryption, or the scrambling of personal and financial data.
Biometrics
A user’s identity is validated by measuring an intrinsic characteristic, such as a fingerprint or retinal scan.
Tokenization
Account data is replaced at the register or online with a random “token” that has no value if copied. Currently, 75% of cards are enabled for tokenization.*
Geolocation
Identifying the real-world location of customers digitally accessing account information helps banks combat fraud.
End-to-end encryption
Banks protect customer data by encoding it into unreadable formats as it makes its way from checkout to the card network to the bank and back.
Mobile payments
Apps like Zelle, PayPal and Android Pay allow individuals to make secure payments with nothing more than an email or cell phone number, and businesses can accept payments on the go with portable card readers and even smartwatches.
Faster Payments
Waiting to get paid is becoming a thing of the past. Direct deposit delivers 93% of all paychecks and 99% of government benefits**, and instant payment networks offer immediately available funds from person-to-person, from customer to merchant, or from a business to a customer for transactions like refunds or insurance claim payouts.
Access
Consumers and businesses today have unprecedented access to safe and secure payments, thanks to innovations that can turn anyone’s smartphone into a point of sale terminal and anyone’s email address into a check.
From 2015 to 2018, more than 3/4 of all core noncash payments in the U.S. were made with credit and debit cards.*
Mobile point-of-sale transactions, ones that use devices like Square, will increase 300% by 2023 to pass 87 billion transactions.**
Convenience
Innovations give consumers and businesses more choice than ever, enabling them to make or accept payments in a variety of forms, 24/7/365.
of consumers say their bank’s online and mobile platforms are convenient.*
say their bank’s online and mobile platforms are easy to use.*
Security
Banks have long set the bar for payments security and have invited other businesses that handle personal data to follow suit. New technologies are making transactions safer and data more secure.
Consumers trust banks most—more than telecom, retailers and alternative payment providers—to keep their money safe.*
Retailers that have completed their EMV chip card technology upgrades have seen counterfeit fraud drop 76% from the end of 2015 to the end of 2018.**
