Partner Article

Bill payments: 2016 predictions from allpay Limited

As the year draws to a close, thoughts shift to what the payments market will look like in 2016. With this in mind Ross Macmillan, Head of Research and Intelligence at allpay Limited, the UK’s leading payments specialist, shares his thoughts about the future of bill payments. allpay aims to help its clients, predominantly in the public sector, to save money by creating modern payment systems that are cost effective and convenient to the end consumer. It specialises in bill payments, prepaid cards, cashless and card manufacturing.

The future of bill payments:

• There will be growth in the volume of payments being processed as Faster Payments, which will be driven by mobile banking App. We’re already seeing the likes of PingIt and Paym utilise the platform and next year we’re expecting these transactions to grow, especially with the launch of Zapp’s Pay by Bank App. The volume of transactions was 771 million in 2014 and is projected to reach 1.94 billion by 2024.
• More generally, we will see an increase in the use of debit and credit cards for smaller value transactions driven by the contactless evolution.
• With demands increasing from the regulatory environment, such as PCI compliance, financial services and technology firms will invest more to ensure their systems are secure and compliant.
• The increasing use of payment system APIs will create a seamless experience for end users. Companies want white labelled versions of payment infrastructure so they can make it feel like their own.
• Although people can now make payments using debit and credit cards, internet banking, mobile ‘wallets’ and smartphone apps, cash continues to be important in the United Kingdom, with demand for Bank of England notes growing faster than nominal GDP. Despite consumers increasingly moving to other payment methods, the value of Bank of England notes in circulation continues to grow, and has trebled over the past two decades (www.bankofengland.co.uk).
• Globally, there is huge demand for prepaid cards for the unbanked across Europe and Africa. This is thanks to the functionality offered by programme managers and how similar the features are to those offered by bank accounts.
• Governments around the world are looking towards prepaid for electronic payment solutions to fight fraud, combat corruption and deliver social benefits – particularly in Africa. In the UK in particular, there is movement from the public sector towards prepaid, as there are now more than 100 councils, Clinical Commissioning Groups, charities and housing associations using prepaid cards to deliver direct payments and other services.

Ross Macmillan, Head of Research and Intelligence at allpay Limited,

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by allpay Limited .