Simple launched realtime person-to-person (P2P) payments today, the company announced in a blogpost. The functionality currently only works online, but will be rolled out to the company’s iOS and Android platforms soon. The service is called Instant and is marketed as a way to settle up with friends or spouses. Simple customers previously sent each other checks through the service to perform the same function, according to the blogpost. Simple joins Dwolla, Fiserv, Square, Google, GoBank and a few others in offering realtime payments across its network. Generally, if a provider controls both ends of the transaction, realtime is possible, but even so, most P2P services require up to a day or more to verify the transfer of funds. Instant payments are a thorny issue in the US (though not elsewhere in the world), with big banks showing a distinct lack of interest in the service and federal regulators likewise showing reluctance to force the issue on the industry. It is left, therefore, to the smaller innovative players, such as Simple, to take on the challenge — and the risk — involved in sending realtime payments on top of a batch processing system. The Bancorp, which provides Simple’s banking infrastructure, struck [...]
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