Aug
01
Under Pressure, Big Banks Vie for Instant Payment Market
By
Venmo advertisements on a subway in Manhattan. More Americans are turning to services like Venmo, PayPal’s instant mobile payment service, because they consider banks too slow. CreditJosh Haner/The New York Times
In this digital age when almost anything can be had in an instant, the movement of money can seem glaringly slow.
Most people paying a housekeeper or collecting money for an office pool still use cash or a check, which can take days to go through — a relative eternity that banking regulators worry is impeding commerce and economic growth.
The slowness has led many Americans to new mobile services, like PayPal’s Venmo or Square Cash, which make it possible to pay a friend instantly with just a phone…
