There are some matters we should account for before fully making the jump to instantaneous payments.
We should anticipate that fraudsters will find a way to manipulate the situation when we move to instant payments.
Beyond that is the matter of trust, which could be compromised by increased fraud. Add to that the general confusion about chargeback processes, which themselves are a tool to ensure trust in the viability of card payments.
We don’t know which comprehensive actions to take because there’s no unified chargeback process, so we could be setting up a feedback loop of growing risk and plummeting consumer trust.
What can we do to prevent this nightmare scenario without precluding the adoption of instantaneous payments?
I think the place to start is by standardizing the chargeback process. I have pushed for adopting consistent, standard chargeback rules and processes across card schemes for years. This would make chargebacks a lot easier to manage in addition to merchants only having to understand one set of protocols, which could also standardize responses. I believe this is a precondition to any kind of workable instant payments process.
Merchants want an instant payments settlement, but they’re not going to embrace new technologies in mass without trust in those technologies. We can lay the groundwork to establish that trust by injecting transparency and clarity into the dispute process. Until then, I don’t see instantaneous payments taking off.
