Future of Payments

Where are we aiming with today´s financial crisis?

The way consumers pay for products and services is dramatically changing, with cash and checks now accounting for less than half of all transactions and falling fast. What payment technologies lie ahead and how will they change the way our economy works?

We have reached limits never thought before, although during this periods, there are a number of ideas in the banking industry that are making me think that banks will be investing in the payments industry much of their efforts.

Payments are an innovative tool that can bring the reliability that most of today´s customers are willing to use.

Payments is a rapidly evolving industry whose growth around the world depends not just on the design of new capabilities and products but also on a more fundamental element: trust

I recently read some interesting words from Mr Ken Chenault( CEO of Amex) :

Payments are “facilitators of global commerce” that holds a tremendous amount of long-term potential for three reasons:

• the vast amount of business still conducted by cash and check, even in established markets,
• technological innovations that continue to make plastic and electronic payments more convenient, and
• the number of large national economies that remain cash-centric.

Realizing these opportunities will take more than improvements in technology and transactional capabilities. People must first have faith in a variety of institutions -- both commercial and governmental -- before they fully embrace payment options other than cash.

Payment providers everywhere have to be accountable and do their part to earn the trust of their customers, warned Ken. “Confidence in the payments industry has eroded over the last couple of years. The credit card industry in particular has fallen short of the mark in some of its practices, and any assessment of the future of payments must recognize this.”

"Our mutual goal needs to be to stop the abuses that exist today, strengthen consumer confidence, and to do so without impeding the growth and development of innovation, choice and value that will benefit customers in the future.”