Speed is everything in the current climate. Web visitors will close a website if it takes just a couple of seconds to load and get frustrated if an app isn’t on their device in the time it takes to exit the app store. But this speed is even more important when money enters the equation.
Rapid payment processing and withdrawals have become a necessity across many industries, but it’s far more important in some than others. These are the industries that rely on fast withdrawals the most.
Online Casinos and Sportsbooks
For years, casino games and sports bettors have argued, “Why are deposits instant, but withdrawals aren’t?”. In other words, why does it take so long for a site to process a player’s winnings, but they take their initial deposit in the blink of an eye?
In truth, it’s not that simple. Player deposits are often held in merchant accounts for a short time, after which they are held in protected accounts, as per UK gambling regulations. At one time, gambling sites were also required to run through a series of anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) checks, before handing over to banking systems that were inherently slow.
Thankfully, that is no longer the case, and UK casinos with instant withdrawals are now easy to come by.
The UK market is a prime example of this. Speed has greatly improved over the last decade or so, and it’s thanks to advancements such as:
- Instant Checks: One of the biggest gripes players had with casinos from 5+ years ago is that they would allow deposits and wagers without questioning the player. But they would suddenly ask for verification documents when the player tried to withdraw. Regulators stopped this and insisted those checks should be performed upon joining. These days, automatic systems are used to check a new member’s ID against existing systems. Many will just perform a soft credit check.
- No Reversible Withdrawal: UK regulators banned reversible withdrawals. It means that sites are no longer allowed to hold a withdrawal in a “pending” status with the option to cancel it and return those funds to the player’s account. Regulators worried that this promoted irresponsible gambling, so they banned it.
- Faster Payments: PayPal and other web wallets were always instant, but debit card and bank transfer payments weren’t. That changed with the introduction of the Faster Payments system, a bank-wide network that makes bank payments as fast as web wallet ones.
Business Banking
We would all like to get our money a lot quicker, even if we’re just sending a few quid to a friend. But fast banking is even more important to businesses, as they have employees and contractors to pay.
It’s also more of a challenge, as businesses deal with far more transactions than the average user, and the amounts are usually much higher too. A delay of a few hours could hold up projects and cause a great deal of frustration. A delay of a few days could be disastrous.
Speed is essential, and luckily, this industry is one of the quickest. Thanks to merchant account services and state-of-the-art card processing technology, as well as global banking systems like SWIFT, money moves instantly, quickly, and securely.
Trading and Investing
Trading accounts and general investment accounts deal with a lot of money and are often struck with delays caused by AML and KYC checks, as well as the complications that come from moving money out of stock exchanges, dealing with currency conversion, and ensuring that everyone gets the agreed-upon fee.
Unfortunately, it’s an industry that has yet to catch up with banking and online casinos. If you withdraw your money from an options trading platform or a share trading platform, you will likely be asked to wait 3 to 5 days, if not more. It’s slow when compared to other sectors, but it’s still fast when you consider how things were many years ago.
Back then, shares were still held as paper certificates and selling them meant contacting a broker and going through a long-winded process. So, it’s making ground, but it’s not quite where most traders want it to be just yet.
Summary: From Slow to Fast
One of the great ironies of convenience is that we take it for granted. There was a time when you’d be happy if a cheque cleared in a couple of days or a bank transfer settled within a week. Just as there was a time when “4 to 6 shipping days” was the norm, long before next- and same-day delivery was demanded.
But that’s always the case, and as technology continues to progress and consumers demand faster, better, and more secure options, fintech companies will strive to meet the demand. So far, we’d say they’re doing a pretty good job of it.
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