Although the use of online banking and online bill payment has flourished over the past decade, banks have yet to capitalize on the opportunity of the thriving online and mobile domestic person-to-person (P2P) transaction market. Online banking use more than doubled from 20 percent of households in 2000 to 53 percent in 2009, according to a December 2009 Javelin Strategy report (Multi-Channel Account-to-Account Transfers and P2P Payments Forecast: Evaluating Trends and Assessing the Future 2006–2014). Further, online bill payment usage has grown from 5 percent of households to 36 percent during the same time period. However, the traditional bank P2P methods of check, cash, and wire transfer continue to decline while online and mobile domestic transfers are expected to grow at a 9 percent compound annual growth rate, according to the Javelin Strategy report. As banks face continued downward pressure on revenues and intense competition from both new and existing players, the online and mobile P2P market represents a threat to banks' traditional check business. However, it also represents a potential opportunity for banks to offer a distinct service to their customers.
The expanding domestic P2P market
A 2009 TowerGroup report (Noncash P2P Payments: Checks in Decline Still Rule the Roost) estimates the U.S. noncash domestic transfer market at $1.1 trillion, composed of more than three billion transactions. Checks remain the dominant P2P means of settlement. However, the availability of the Internet to households, impressive growth of smartphones, exponential increases in consumer mobile data usage, and numerous mobile applications (especially for the iPhone) are creating a healthy environment for the growing online and mobile domestic transfer market in the United States. The Javelin Strategy report suggests nearly 44 percent of the 86 million online households made at least one online P2P transfer, up from 27 percent in 2008.
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The online and mobile P2P market has been dominated by PayPal to date. However, payment processors, electronic card networks, and new emerging payment service providers have launched competing products over the last several years. PayPal and other service providers, such as CashEdge, Fiserv, FIS, and MasterCard, have each created products designed to integrate into banks' existing online and mobile channels. Although these products can be integrated into banking channels and the transactions are more convenient for consumers than a traditional bank wire or check transaction, the transaction is far from seamless. In order to use the online and mobile P2P products that banks currently offer, consumers must register not only with their bank but also with the bank's P2P service provider partner, which often requires them to submit their personal and banking account information. Adding further complications, completing the transaction may require the receiver of the payment, or the receiver’s bank, to have a relationship with the P2P provider that the payer uses.
Tapping the ACH network?
While it appears that the migration from paper checks to electronic forms of payment in the consumer-to-business market is crossing over to the P2P market, banks still have many hurdles to clear before they can capitalize on the P2P opportunity as online and mobile P2P payments become widespread. The P2P providers offer banks a solution that allows for quicker settlement than either checks or wire transfers, but the solution is still far from consumer-friendly. In order to provide banking consumers a friendlier P2P online and mobile service, banks could consider the development of a P2P solution that leverages the extensive ACH network in a manner similar to a person-to-business transaction. Much like mobile banking or bill payment, consumers could opt into the P2P service and transfer or receive funds between any banking institution on the ACH network without having to register with and provide confidential data to a third-party P2P service provider to access the service.
By Douglas A. King, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed