BBVA Compass customers can now bypass America's antiquated, sluggish payments networks and make real-time payments through Iowa startup Dwolla's platform.
Although the Federal Reserve is inching towards developing a faster payments system, Americans still have to put up with the decades-old Automated Clearing House, where transfers typically take two-to-five business days to clear.
BBVA Compass is bypassing the traditional routes and using Dwolla’s FiSync protocol, which enables the confirmation of good funds, secure authentication and real-time availability of money to and from the Dwolla network. Transactions over $10 will incur a flat fee of 25 cents and will be free for smaller value amounts.
On security, Dwolla says that FiSync uses authentication and tokenisation processes that remove the need for people to provide sensitive bank account information or credentials to it or any other party - marking it out as different from Apple Pay, Stripe and PayPal.
Manolo Sánchez, CEO, BBVA Compass, says: "By working with Dwolla, BBVA Compass is ensuring that money is able to keep up with the speed of the instant economy. This will have a real and lasting impact on businesses and consumers alike."
The partners say that real-time transfers are particularly useful for startups, enterprise companies and small businesses looking for a simple, secure and inexpensive way to collect funds, make disbursements or handle B2B payments.
They are also pitching the service as a boon to innovators, who can use Dwolla's APIs to create their own custom real-time applications or business processes. Says Dwolla CEO Ben Milne: "FiSync will give anyone with a BBVA Compass relationship a real-time platform to innovate new services, build compelling products or improve existing systems."