Immediate funds transfer (IFT) is a highly convenient, certain, secure, and economical means of payment using bank money. IFT is not available in the U.S. banking system, except for large-value business payments, interbank transfers, and specialized financial market transactions. This article...

The “cashless and checkless” society has been a dominant theme in the thinking of bankers for twenty years. Because electronic funds transfer (EFT) represents a breakthrough in the payment process, most discussions of electronic payments have dealt only with expected future developments. In...