Digital Payments, a disruptive innovation

We are witnessing a strong evolutionary push in the payment systems market. This sector is still strategic for banks and new "players," both in terms of investment growth and the use of innovative services by private and corporate customers.

Never before has the payment market evolved as it has in this social, cultural and health context, offering consumers a "user experience" they have never had before.

Therefore, the need to combine the choice of payment channel with the personal way of relating in purchasing, business and ecommerce is highlighted.

These criteria reflect our lifestyle, habits, economic ability and can influence the choice of payment instruments to be used.

In every sphere, behind every transaction, a pattern of habitual behavior in the payment mode can be identified that influences the development of new strategies implemented by companies, banks, and FinTechs, also creating potential for the creation of new services for merchants.

In recent years, there has been a strong development of e-commerce that peaked in the recent Covid-19 emergency. Have the fears and uncertainties of digital been overcome? Has it felt safer, perhaps obligated, or has it changed the way we approach making a payment?

Questions that continue to generate answers in terms of new services that are increasingly diverse and articulated, a sign that the market is evolving rapidly. Several examples can be brought to the center of change, certainly tools such as: Instant Payments, credit-debit cards, prepaid cards, Revolut, N26, Cash Management services, Sumup Payments, PliCK, Satispay, MyBank, and many other solutions.

The key success variables for both payer and payee are three and can be summarized as: simplicity, speed, and security.

Continuing developments in Digital Innovation are the creation of "intuitive apps," more ease in payment execution, and marked user protection from fraud.

Against this backdrop, we cannot forget the regulatory innovation of PSD2, which has enabled the development of "Open Banking" as a point of aggregation of a great deal of information on customer accounts, the use of multi-bank payment instruments, and the recently introduced regulations on the use of cash and payment tracking.

Open Banking changes the focus of our payments operations by enabling the pursuit of more sophisticated and "tailored" collateral services.

Today there is an increasing need to understand new market trends, they represent business opportunities for private customers and companies also depending on the use of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchian technologies. Various merchants have begun an evolutionary process in this direction, also to endear themselves to the market of those who are more inclined to Digital Innovation.

CeTIF in light of these changes believes that training on these issues is critical for banks, insurance companies, and FinTech.

Thus, a dialogue, constructive and confrontational on this area, is opened to identify which value-added services can generate business by meeting customer needs and customer loyalty.

Seizing the trend of this change, having an overview, hypothesizing new scenarios of the payment world, can make all the difference.