Payment is not a simple industry, it’s a complete and intricate ecosystem including many players ruled by regulations but also procedures and standards. Nevertheless, Payment is also a matter of people, of innovation, and a cornerstone of any company. For instance, only in 2016, the total number of non-cash payments in the EU has increased by 8,5% which represents about 122 billion.
It never stops evolving and following trends.
How can we explain this great emulation?
Firstly, consumers don’t want to pay anymore. Usage now prevails over ownership. Consumers don’t want to pay for a cab, they just open an app, and book a cab. They are looking for new experiences and always eager to find products that will create a WOW effect.
Secondly, consumers don’t want to wait, they want to use a service immediately, like food delivery or streaming.
To sum up, what is really consider boring by consumers is the ACTION OF PAYING!
This is the new playground of FinTechs. Associate this with the rise of new technologies, payment industry enters a new era of digitalization and digital innovation where many alternative ways of paying, like using Biometric technologies (e.g. face or eye recognition), are already achievable.
Let’s see what the coming years have in store! 2018 opens a new World of possibilities for Payments.
Some of our internal Experts share their point of view on trending now hot topics.
1. APIs
“APIs empower the whole Fintech sector” – Rodolphe, Research & Development
APIs enable startups to build products faster, and empowers the FinTech innovation engines. The API approach allows ever-new technology companies to innovate much faster on the built-in platform.
Now, due to the introduction of the PSD2, banks will open their APIs to third parties, like Fintechs. This is a great opportunity for innovation as it will allow developers to latch to Banks APIs and create very specific customised app solutions. The main consequence? An even more frictionless user experience!
Open banking creates value through interactions, like an anthill. Dozens of services that make sense through interactions, means collective intelligence
2. PSD2
“The idea of PSD2 is to open the market and create opportunities for payment players” – Jérôme Traisnel, CEO & Co-founder SlimPay
The implementation of third-party applications, as provided by PSD2, may take some time to become effective. FinTechs are waiting for Banks to open their APIs and they are and looking forward to test them.
3. Big Data
“Big Data is a critical challenge for the payment industry” – Clémence, Data Scientist
Big Data affects all industries and even more payment. Big Data plays a pivotal role, helping to predict fraud, insolvency, but also to predict which payment method would be more successful on a specific transaction. In addition, Big Data helps the payment industry by forecasting churn from customers and also improving and automating both KYC and customer service (e.g. Chatbot).
All these revolutions are challenging us on the legal part
4. Regulations
“New Regulations are protecting both consumers and companies interest” – Marie, Compliance
The different EU regulations on Payment Industry are there to secure your rights: protection of your personal data, to guarantee that your funds are safely guarded or to fight against payment fraud.
The introduction of all these new Regulations can be seen as a threat albeit they are playing a central role by protecting both consumers and companies interest.
All the above listed hot topics can be seen as a singularity but gathered together represents the future basis of the Payment Industry changement. Be ready for 2018 & the years to follow!
