Banks Turn to Real-Time Payments to Win SMB Customers

Small and medium-sized businesses have long fallen between consumer banking and the middle-market segment, making it difficult for banks to serve them profitably and leaving the customer base repeatedly up for grabs. Piermont Bank CEO Wendy Cai-Lee said increasingly mature APIs, data analytics and real-time payments are giving banks an opportunity to redesign their products and service models.

A recent PYMNTS report found that banks are using real-time payments to compete for SMB customers. As payment-processing costs decline, competition is shifting from front-end interfaces to underlying infrastructure such as payment rails, data and systems integration. The report did not provide transaction values, growth rates or a specific publication date, and Piermont Bank did not disclose a product-launch timetable.