WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. -- NYCE Corporation plans to offer its financial institution members the ability to offer their customers person-to-person (P2P) electronic funds transfers. When fully implemented, NYCE members will be able to offer P2P transactions to their customers at all types of devices that can communicate with the NYCE Network's processing platform --including ATMs, Web-accessible PCs and PDAs..
According to NYCE Senior Vice President James S. Judd, who unveiled the technology at the company's 2000 Electronic Delivery Conference in Boston in September, NYCE's P2P product is distinguished by its real-time functionality. This feature is currently not supported by other P2P providers. NYCE is working with several financial institutions in preparation for the first stage of the product launch, which is scheduled for first quarter 2001.
Utilizing NYCE's real-time payments infrastructure, the P2P transactions will be switched using an ATM/debit card number associated with the recipient's account. And because the transfer is made directly between accounts at insured depository institutions, issues associated with funds held by non-supervised organizations will not be present.
NYCE expects that the P2P capability will facilitate the management of personal accounts held at different institutions, making transfers/forwarding monetary gifts to family and friends and paying for purchases, especially when shopping at Internet auctions.
Here's how a typical NYCE P2P transaction may work: Bob buys a vase from Sue on the Internet through an auction site and needs to send her $50 as payment. Bob has an account at Institution A; Sue has an account at Institution B. Bob logs onto Institution A's web site and at the appropriate page initiates a new P2P payment transaction by entering the amount of the transfer and the ATM/debit card number provided by Sue. After authorizing the transaction, Institution A will debit Bob's account and initiate a credit transaction through the NYCE Network for immediate credit to Sue's account at Institution B.
Financial institutions will be able to customize the product for their customers, Judd said. "Our network participants maintain complete control over all related business decisions, from which access devices they will support to determining brand and marketing strategies. Looking ahead, these P2P applications might also be expandable to address the needs of other payment sectors such as consumer-to-business and business-to-business."
