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Modulr glossary

Real-Time Payments / Near Real-Time Payments

Real-Time Payments enable the immediate transfer (or close to immediate transfer) of funds between accounts, 24/7. This offers significant advantages over traditional payment methods with slower or unpredictable settlement times, transaction fees and lack of clarity over payment completion. Real-Time Payments typically refer to retail payment solutions, and the effective impossibility of instant payment has led to the use of the term Near Real-Time Payments, reflecting delays of seconds, minutes or even hours, in contrast to days for a payment to complete.

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

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