BFC Bulletins Monthly News Digest
The way that we pay for goods and services seems to be ever-changing, with new technologies leading to new innovations in how to transfer payments. This will no doubt continue in 2022, where we are likely to see payment solutions delivered with a renewed sense of purpose. Here are 7 key payment predictions for 2022:
- The ‘P2P’ wars will continue. Market-dominating fintechs such as PayPal, Venmo, Apple Cash and Square’s Cash App continue to develop and integrate new and useful features. Zelle, which was launched as a response to these payment apps by financial institutions, will continue to struggle to build a market share.
- Cards (and cash) will still have a prominent place. Although alternative payment methods are growing, card (both debit and credit) transactions are still dominant. Even the use of cash remains strong. It will be some time before both are overcome.
- Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options will be a wildcard player. BNPL services are on the rise and have gotten the attention of the banking sector. Financial institutions will fight back hard in 2022, but not without some major growing pains.
- Super apps will ramp up. Many financial and ecommerce services have been fragmented, leaving consumers to manage everything. As consumers begin clamoring for more ‘one-stop-shop’ solutions that consolidate their digital experiences into a single solutions, super apps (and the financial institutions, retailers and telecommunication providers backing them) will right for supremacy.
- Embedded payment solutions will increase in popularity. As connectivity continues to expand and improve, the invisible and painless processes of embedded payments will also evolve, leading to solutions where payments can and will be made without having to stop at a point of sale (or even stop at all).
- Real-time payment solutions will continue to march forward. Real-time payment solutions are advanced in many parts of the world already, and consumers in the rest of the world are demanding that their financial institutions catch up. Eventually, this could lead to previously unthought-off services such as daily mortgage payments and daily (or even hourly) payroll payments.
- Mastercard and Visa will keep fighting strong. Recent events (e.g. Amazon’s announcement that it would stop accepting Visa payments in the U.K.) have led many to think this could be the end for the two major credit card companies. But neither has any plans of going down without a fight, and both have made strategic partnerships with fintechs to secure their places in the financial world of tomorrow.
