We are living in an era where we expect brands to deliver services instantly. Similarly, consumers want to make payments to such service brands as faster as possible which enabled the growth of the instant payment industry over the last decade. Thanks to contactless payments or Near Field Communication (NFC) card payments, people all over the world are now transforming to Apple or Samsung Pay via mobile phone. This technological innovation in the payments industry and financial industry connected to transactions is described as ‘Fintech Revolution’ across the globe.
This trend of, essentially impatience and instant gratification, is driving the fintech revolution of the world, and instant payments had taken a major role in it. Increased usage of handheld mobile devices across countries and the role of the mobile phones had impacted the payments industry more so than any other. In today’s world, most consumers use online banking via smartphones. In some regions of USA, they do mundane tasks such as depositing a cheque via taking pictures of the front and the back of the cheque with a smartphone or iPad and use a Mobile App to deposit the cheque.
The Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) has defined instant payments as electronic retail payment solutions available every day of the year meaning 24/7/365.
Financial Industry Experts acknowledged that instant payments are beneficial to users, who need or expect them to be immediately available. Meanwhile, Blockchain and the digital currencies are emerging as a new platform to make instant payments across the nations and payments landscape.
Reports highlight that the People’s Bank of China has done trial runs of its prototype cryptocurrency, taking it a step closer to being the first major central bank to issue digital money. The Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have launched a joint research project which studies the possible use of distributed ledger – the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies – for market infrastructure.
The Dutch Central Bank has created its own cryptocurrency – for internal circulation only. Meanwhile Ben Bernanke, the Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said digital currencies show “long term promise”.
This year GLC Europe, a pioneer in the production and management of interactive and impactful global corporate conferences, is organizing an event in Vienna on 14th & 15th September 2017. Over 100 experts in the Payments industry will debate the future of Europe’s Payments Industry at this event titled ‘InnoPay 2017’, the 4th Annual European Payments Forum. Participants at the forum will gain the opportunity to identify trends of the financial industry and the geopolitical landscape that impact the payment industry. They will have the chance to hear industry professionals discussing about and how banks should cooperate with FinTech companies in order to maximize customer experience.