The 12 trends of Christmas: The payments sector

With the year coming to a close we take a look at 12 trends of the payments sector for Christmas and beyond!

Day 1

Growth of embedded finance: “Expected to reach highs of $230 billion in 2025 embedded finance will see a 10x growth since 2020” - Forbes.

Day 2

In time… real-time: A focus for the last few years, payments sectors will move further toward real-time authentication, data-gathering and analysis, and faster payments.

Day 3

The rise of untapped markets and emerging economies: Emerging and developing economies will become increasingly involved in e-commerce, leaning on payment gateways to reach internationally-based customers.

Day 4

A prioritisation toward merchant flexibility: Merchants in developing and developed markets will require more flexibility from payment gateways to facilitate a rise in alternative finance payment methods such as open banking and BNPL.

Day 5

Banking for the unbanked: Further targeting of the unbanked with new products to minimise the number of people without access to a bank accounts or a wallet/payment method that they can use to digitalise their life.

Day 6

Diversified fraud prevention protocols: The payments sector will need to diversify fraud prevention systems to incorporate alternative finance.

Day 7

Crypto payments facilitation: In accordance with consumer and merchant demands, crypto payments will become further incorporated into e-commerce, with payment gateway providers facilitating this dynamic.

Day 8

Alt-fi and Trad-fi technology conversion: Traditional financial services and institutions will continue to adopt digital asset technology, such as blockchain, for settlements, reconciliations, and clearances.

Day 9

Merchants demand data & transparency: In an effort to better understand their ever-changing businesses, merchants will require a transparent and control-giving platform to analyse their e-commerce financial flows.

Day 10

Policy standardisation sector-wide: Frameworks and policy-makers will increasingly standardise the protocols, systems, and practices of financial services, ranging from trad-fi legacies to alt-fi contenders and payment gateways.

Day 11

Tackling risk protection: As more data is collected and data-driven algorithms are updated the payments sector will move toward lower risk rates. While risk will remain a hot topic in 2023, advancements will occur that make e-commerce safer for business and consumer.

Day 12

A (more) equal payments sector: Lastly, female thought leaders within the payment industry are finally finding a space to share their gender-based experiences in our sector. A wholly positive development, we’re looking forward to seeing payments gradually reduce the gender gap and appeal more to young females with an interest in financial services.