Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is the electronic exchange, transfer of money from one account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, through computer-based systems.
The term covers a number of different concepts:
- Wire transfer via an international banking network
- Cardholder-initiated transactions, using a payment card such as a credit or debit card
- Direct deposit payment initiated by the payer
- Direct debit payments, sometimes called electronic checks, for which a business debits the consumer's bank accounts for payment for goods or services
- Electronic bill payment in online banking, which may be delivered by EFT or paper check
- Transactions involving stored value of electronic money, possibly in a private currency
- Electronic Benefit Transfer
In 1978 the U.S. Congress passed the Electronic Funds Transfer Act to establish the rights and liabilities of consumers as well as the responsibilities of all participants in EFT activities in the United States.
Famous quotes containing the words electronic and/or transfer:
“Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“No sociologist ... should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time. One cannot with impunity try to transfer this task entirely to mechanical assistants if one wishes to figure something, even though the final result is often small indeed.”
—Max Weber (1864–1920)