“It’s a simple idea with extraordinary impact”: Inside the growing world of push payments

The world of push payments — sending rather than taking money from an account — is rapidly expanding and changing the way many businesses work. Push payments are one of the contributing factors to the rapidly growing world of electronic payments, which are growing at about twice the rate of gross domestic product in the United States, and even faster in places like Asia, according to a report from McKinsey & Co.

“It’s a simple idea with extraordinary impact,” said Shari Krikorian, senior vice president, push payments, at Mastercard, one of the major players behind the concept. The technology is largely associated with startups, and is the basis of well-known transformative giants like Zelle and Venmo. But the main players providing the infrastructure are the traditional credit companies, including Visa and Mastercard, which have opened up platforms and brands, like Mastercard Send and Visa Direct, to concentrate on push payments made from debit cards.