TD Bank: Banks Crave Immediacy in Mobile Payments, Other Kinds

Getting a handle on what banks want to see can be a very helpful study, especially for those who would sell things to corporate CFOs and treasurers. Of likely particular help to those merchants is a recent study from TD Bank, who revealed just what banks desire, and what’s holding them back as well.

The big news is immediate payments. Whether for mobile payments or any other class, real-time payments are proving especially desirable. Almost half-42 percent-of respondents considered these capabilities, added to online banking, to be the single biggest positive impact source for the next three to five years of operation.

It wasn’t just real-time payments that would deliver big change; 20 percent expected AI and machine learning to be big sources of change, while blockchain came in for 11 percent. Rounding out the list was biometrics at a meager, but still present, four percent.

Yet there were problems as well. Outdated infrastructure was cited by 36 percent of respondents to the study. Seventy-four percent called for the addition of a mobile app for business banking.

TD Bank’s head of corporate products and services Rick Burke noted “One of the largest impediments to today’s payments industry is that change is happening faster than organizations can realistically accommodate it. Sending and receiving corporate payments is a complex process and one that it is not yet as nimble as consumer payments. As more CFOs and treasurers use immediate payment schemes in their personal financial transactions, the demand for commercial availability will also rise, and financial institutions and businesses need to be prepared to accommodate that expectation.”

Basically, it’s time for banks to step up their upgrade processes and meet the needs of their customers. It’s good to know that the spirit is willing on this one, even if the flesh of budgets might not be so eager to accommodate. However, with upstart banks going online-only in a bid to pursue the same business—and often providing those real-time payments, blockchain, and other services customers want—it’s obvious banks will have little choice but to upgrade or risk losing customers.

Hopefully, the banks will see their mistakes and advance before it’s too late. There’s a lot at stake here, and they need to get off the metaphorical-and literal-dime on this one.