Getting the most out of tomorrow’s payments ecosystem: strategies for more effective collaboration and meeting customer expectations
Despite a somewhat uncertain economic backdrop, there’s one area of retail financial services that is truly flourishing, and that’s payments. Transaction volumes are growing at an unprecedented rate, with global non-cash payments expected to top 333 billion transactions in 2012, according to the latest available data from the World Payments Report 2013 published by Capgemini and RBS industry estimates.
Overall what’s clear is that whether in cash or by card, with a mobile phone or online, people are making more and more payments. In emerging markets, the growth in transactions is fuelled by a rise in GDP, demographics and financial inclusion. In mature markets growth is driven by the adoption of new technologies, channels and payment products.
For banks this growth in payments represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Increased competition and tighter regulations mean that banks need to leverage new technologies and achieve operational efficiency in order to stay ahead and provide the functionality that today’s customers demand - the ability to transact anytime and anywhere in a simple, fast and secure way.
There’s no doubt that achieving success in this space won’t come easy. Adapting to new business models and finding new ways of working with merchants and issuers will take much time and effort, especially for traditional banks. However, one thing is for sure: for those banks that do succeed, the payoff will be huge.
The
Retail Payments Week is an umbrella for five dedicated conferences, each focusing on a specific area of the payments value chain. The aim is to cover a wide number of topics in a highly structured way, enabling delegates to effectively customise their visit. The five conferences are as follows:
Future of Cashwhich focuses on achieving operational efficiency within cash services
Payments Issuingwhich will address challenges that consumer banks and payments providers are facing
Merchant Acquiring which will look at how to build merchant-centric payment services offering in a multi-channel environment