Three Key Takeaways from the Latest Payments Insight Survey

Blinkist is a reading app that summarizes books into 15-20 minute reads; these reads are called “blinks.” It’s helpful for a few reasons – I can scan books before I purchase them, I can get new ideas without having to read the full book, and I can learn to summarize information. It’s safe to say that I (and probably many who are strapped for time) are a little obsessed with Blinkist! So here I present my own summary – in three key takeaways – of the new ‘2018 Global Payments Insight Survey: Retail Banking,’ which finds that 51% of banks are increasing spend on payment technology.

4 Reasons Why You Must Future Proof Your Technology

What does future proofing your technology mean? In my view, it means preparing your bank to deliver the best customer experience possible--today and tomorrow. Research from Greenwich Associates indicates that the customer experience and ease of doing business are key drivers of loyalty. Extracting value from your technology investments so you can provide a superior customer experience is not only important because of the impact on service, but also on loyalty.

I want to focus on 4 reasons why future proofing your technology is important. These insights are a sneak preview into some of the findings from our upcoming whitepaper produced with Ovum, the annual Global Payment Insight Series.

Alternative Payments, Immediate Payments and Collaboration—Big Initiatives That Will Bring Big Value in the Middle East

We recently wrapped up an exciting Seamless Payments, Middle East conference. Attendees debated about numerous industry topics, with considerable buzz around alternative payments and immediate payments.

The Middle East Presents Retailers A Growing Opportunity But Faces Two Challenges

36% of Middle East residents are digital shoppers¹  and are expected to spend $19B² online in 2017; with this spend figure rapidly growing to $34B in 2021. Although cash is the preferred method of transacting, the region is edging toward a digital society. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, nearly two thirds of the population has smartphones—fueling shopping online growth.³  This prevents retailers new growth opportunities.

Seamless Payments Africa and the Region’s Evolving Payments Landscape

Blockchain is overhyped and misunderstood; consumers want consistency; and customer centricity and collaboration are not a project. Although they’re not necessarily my own sentiment, these are my three key takeaways from the Seamless Payments – Africa conference, which wrapped up recently in Cape Town.

Blockchain for Retailers: Producing Real Business Benefits

When I read about blockchain, I typically come across three use cases: cross-border payments, security issuance and digital currency. These have all been proven to work—and they are also finance-related. But the payments ecosystem includes a lot more than just financial institutions. This post explores the potential impact that blockchain will have on retailers and their value chain.

The eCommerce Opportunity in South Africa

High mobile penetration, rising consumer confidence in online transactions, and secure online gateways are driving eCommerce growth globally. However, by international standards, eCommerce penetration across Africa is still relatively low. But it is estimated that 600M consumers will be online by 2025, spending $75B each year, which offers a tremendous opportunity.

IoT, Blockchain, Predictive Analytics and Voice First: 2017 Payments Predictions

Well, my predictions last year of blockchain, millennials and SaaS will dominate payments was partly true. I missed millennials, I overstated the impact millennials, particularly millennial business owners, would have on the payments. The desires and needs of millennials (e.g. faster processing, mobile first, contextual offers) are built into the roadmaps of providers. Blockchain and SaaS dominated many headlines and will continue to do so. My predictions to stay relevant this year – IoT, Blockchain (with a twist), Predictive Analytics and Voice First.

Alternative Payments Will Present New Business Opportunities In The Middle East

The second survey in our ongoing series took us to Dubai and the Cards and Payments Middle Eastern Conference in early June. Much like the blog from Australia, we had some fascinating results but for entirely different reasons. Whilst 64% of the Australian payment experts we interviewed were concerned about being disrupted by new technologies and entrants, only 38% in Dubai agreed with this sentiment. In fact, 39% disagreed with this and said their business was not going to be disrupted by new technologies or entrants. Hmmm... Let’s try and understand the reasons for this huge difference…

South African card fraud trends & risky consumer behavior

In conjunction with the PASA International Payments Conference this week, we decided to take a look at some recent consumer fraud data from the host nation, South Africa. The market is very similar to the global averages, in that a shockingly high number of consumers continue to experience card fraud. Despite the number of fraud attacks and breaches, consumers in South Africa continue to engage in risky behavior such as providing information in phishing attempts and writing down their PIN numbers.