Payments were already experiencing an irreversible transformation prior to the epidemic. But depending on where you look, there could still be a few things that need catching up.
According to Tracy Monson, chief product officer at One, and Renee Albert, chief product and strategy officer at Equity Trust, real estate-related disbursements are anticipated to follow other payments as they move more quickly and aggressively toward modernization and digital transactions.
The typical client and employee, says Monson, “have this urge toward variety, flexibility, and speed.”
That’s partially due to a long-term shift in the way payments are taken, where everyone from businesses to service providers had previously allowed customers to pay them any way they wished.
She claims that the customer now possesses a degree of power that was unheard of in the past. According to Monson’s description of the issue, people may decide how and when to share their bank login information (if they have bank accounts) or if they want to use payment applications.
According to Monson, when it comes to the payouts themselves, “we think about modernizing disbursements, how can we truly convert the distribution into a beautiful smooth payment experience where there is choice and speed?”
More Than Just a Paper Check
According to Equity Trust’s Albert, her company’s operations can shed light on the possibility to take disbursements beyond the paper check and beyond paper-intensive manual processes. She said that Equity Trust is an IRA custodian for self-directed clients that own alternative assets like real estate.
Real estate property managers are being called upon more and more to transition to digital payments.
Real estate owners have been using checks to pay their taxes, maintenance bills, and other obligations for years—even decades, as Albert mentioned. This is altering as real estate firms use digital methods, such as virtual cards and digital wallets, to settle their accounts.
According to Albert, “we’re disrupting the status quo and the methods that people have been paying, and since we’ve released the card, we’ve seen huge drops in those checks going out the door.”
However, she pointed out that in order for Equity Trust to get there, it has to overcome difficulties related to ensuring that transactions are completed in a way that complies with numerous regulatory requirements as well as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements. According to Albert, collaborating with distribution systems like Onbe helps streamline those processes.
