As an industry it never used to make the front pages of any mainstream newspaper but payments has become a hot topic. In this presentation you’ll get a bird’s-eye view on some of the latest developments in the field of moving money.
General opinion seems to be that banks will soon become obsolete. FinTechs and incumbent techgiants are on the brink of taking over. “We need banking services, but we don’t need banks”, as Bill Gates put it. Regulators are fuelling the fire by chipping off chunks of banks’ monopoly on providing payment accounts and payment services.
These megatrends are overshadowing the developments within the industry that used to be neatly divided into three worlds: cash, cards and wire. Are cards and wire transfers, in whatever form, soon realizing the cashless society? (No.) With the ever increasing numbers in card transactions, with a processing infrastructure much nearer to realtime and 24/7, will that take over wire transfers that still largely rely on batch oriented infrastructures? (Wrong question.) Are Instant Payments the hybrid that will unite both those worlds? (It could.) Or is the blockchain the disrupting technology that will leave all three of them irrelevant? (Unlikely.) Are we witnessing the long predicted domination of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay in the consumer’s virtual wallet? (Who?) Will banks be pushed into the commodity trap now that regulators are pushing for Open Banking? (Good question.)
Speaker: Michal Kalina
