Gina Clarke, Editor-in-Chief at The Fintech Times, sat down with Jane Loginova, Chief Strategy Officer at BPC to discuss her 2022 predictions for the banking and payments industry.
Jane began with her first trend, explaining how Software-as-a-Service is a key way forward for the industry in 2022.
She said: “There is a bigger trend of digitalisation with payments being at the core of those processes. Invisible, frictionless, quick payments or fast payments are what we aspire to these days, and a lot of that can be achieved mostly through software as a service, especially if startups or established players who want to innovate and be at the forefront of the industry. For them to be able to incorporate new features and solutions to serve their customers with the latest technology really has to be through a SaaS platform as it gives it the opportunity to develop and bring to market more features.”
When looking specifically at payments, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has seen huge growth over the last couple of years, becoming a popular payment method for younger demographics across the globe.
In light of this, Jane believes that this sector will likely face regulatory oversight this year.
“Really, BNPL is credit,” she said. “And in the same way that microfinance was very hot at some point in time and now there’s a lot of caution and regulation around it, I think BNPL will also be facing some regulatory pressures.”
Jane continued: “I think it’s a great and useful tool that has a space and reason to exist, by there should be more education surrounding it. Like with credit cards there is always a payback time. BNPL is very much entrenched in the digitalised world and is present within marketplaces and apps that a lot of the younger digital-savvy population are using. That segment is not necessarily well educated or aware of financial prudence, and so that payback time can be painful.”
Finally, Jane spoke of increased investment in fraud solutions, saying that fraud has been a hot topic for a number of years and will continue to be so.
She said: “It’s an ever-evolving subject, financial crime is constantly evolving as people get smarter and the digitalisation goes further. However, as there are more tools to commit fraud there are also more tools to fight fraud.
“Cybersecurity is something that everyone is very aware of and focused on, especially organisations that are in possession with a lot of consumer data, which is highly regulated in most countries. That data is very valuable, so the crimes on data acquisition are particularly prevalent alongside your standard crime.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a hot topic but it will always be the topic as we go along as there is no one tool that can once and for all solve the situation.”
