The future of payments – are you ready for the cashless revolution?

Exciting opportunities are emerging for both banks and fintechs as new, innovative payment trends gain momentum. These were apparent during my participation at the Global Payments Summit, Vienna and Fintech Connect, London. At both events discussion focused on the digital transformations shaping payments. It will be important to keep top of mind the cashless revolution that is emerging and the frictionless future.?

The cashless revolution

The Global Payments Summit brought together payment providers from across Central Europe. We were able to share expertise and discuss the difficult questions across the entire payments landscape - card, banking, cross-border and crypto. Cashless transaction volume is set to double by 2030 (PwC Strategy & global payments model, 2021). And, as our own?Global Payments Report ?calls out?cheques and cash are no longer the dominant methods they once were, equalling roughly a fifth of global payment volume combined.?

Frictionless future

The industry is entering huge change, driven, as is often the case, by regulators’ response to how the market is evolving. And as payment trends shape the market, in parallel a wider web of digital ecosystems is forming. Consumers are connecting themselves digitally to the organisations and communities that are part of their everyday lives. Discussed in my Keynote, the trends and regulatory forces that will lead us to this cashless revolution and frictionless future include:????

·???????Inclusion & Trust?– the World Bank’s goal, under its Universal Financial Access Programme, is for adults to have access to a transaction account to store, send and receive payments.?

·???????Digital Currencies?– Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is predicted to have a huge disruptive impact. The digital Euro is coming. Pilot tests of CBDC are underway in banks. Fiat-cryptocurrency conversion and storage are emerging opportunities.?

·???????Digital wallets?– adoption is growing. It’s convenient, QR codes, open banking and super-app proliferation is helping drive it. Meanwhile, in B2B there are digitised supply chains.?

·???????Battle of the Rails?– payment processing is changing with digital wallets and as regulators force the strengthening of domestic payments infrastructure.?

·???????Cross-border Payments?– use of AI for low-cost payments, global standardisation, regional solutions, and global nonbank solutions based on cryptocurrency and digital wallets, are all forcing change.?

·???????Battle of Fraud?– Security, compliance and data-privacy risk are top concerns for banks and fintechs. Providers will need to protect their entire ecosystem against increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.?

Digital opportunity

At Fintech Connect I took part in a lively and thought-provoking panel discussion about the importance of digital transformation in payments which is converging at pace due to customer preferences, tech innovations and market trends. The panel included representatives from banking, merchanting, technology and payment processing, we all see the opportunities, and we are all part of the payment ecosystem.?

However, mixed in with the onboarding, customer experience and the B2C market discussions, there was insecurity. There have been layoffs with multiple fintechs in Europe. This was also reflected in the Fintech’s venture capital pitch. In the past the talk was of returns in ten years, now it’s more immediate, more down to earth, and about seeing returns now.?

Intelligent digital experiences

These are interesting times and the incentives to modernise payments technology and processes are very apparent, from fostering a healthy business sector, speeding up payments, to improving forecasting and decision making. And upgrading payments doesn’t have to be an arduous, expensive overhaul. Many fixes are process-focused, and the software typically provides a significant return on investment. At Endava we can accelerate your ability to take advantage of these new market opportunities by ideating and delivering dynamic platforms and intelligent digital experiences.?