PAYMENTS and greater payment control. Digital subscription services can be activated instantly, while online purchases are completed without delay. Mark highlights the control aspect as particularly important.“ For consumers, it’ s all about control and convenience. Whether they’ re paying a bill or making an online purchase, they want reassurance that the payment can be easily managed.”

This contrasts sharply with Direct Debit’ s limitations.“ With Direct Debit, you don’ t know how much is coming out of your account or when and it feels rigid,” Mark reveals.“ Whereas Visa A2A gives consumers immediate payment confirmation and more control to manage their payments.”

Managing fraud risks Real-time transactions introduce significant fraud and risk management challenges that require sophisticated solutions. The irrevocable nature of these payments means that prevention becomes essential rather than reactive, raising the stakes for effective fraud management.

“ Real-time transactions like A2A payments bring clear benefits such as speed, transparency and greater user control,” Mark explains.“ But they also raise the stakes for fraud and risk management. Once a payment is made, it can’ t be reversed. That’ s why prevention becomes essential.”

Visa A2A addresses these challenges through what Mark describes as a three-pronged approach: prevention, monitoring and protection. The company implements safeguards to ensure only legitimate actors participate in the network, preventing fraudulent activity before it occurs.

Real-time monitoring enables fraud detection and transaction blocking while fraudsters are identified and removed from the network. Clear liability and dispute resolution mechanisms provide consumer protections for recovery when fraud does occur.

“ These protections, backed by the reliability and trust of the Visa brand, bring the kind of clarity and assurance that open banking-enabled A2A payments need to go mainstream,” Mark concludes.“ Because when people trust how they pay, they’ re far more likely to use it.”

A2A payments complement traditional card networks for different use cases

Open banking regulatory framework enables direct account-to-account payment connections

Visa A2A provides card-level consumer protections for account-to-account transactions

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