Viewpoints

With its exponential growth and potential impact, buy now, pay later (BNPL) is not just a passing trend but a transformative force in the world of payments.

Given the challenges related to infrastructure, interoperability, and financial literacy, the ongoing efforts to foster trust in digital financial services within South Africa's informal market have yet to see a reduction in cash transactions. However, it is within the informal economy that financial inclusion initiatives make the biggest impact. So, how can banks and Fintechs effectively incentivise individuals to transition away from cash and actively engage in the digital economy?

In this blog, we explore three key reasons why BNPL would be a valuable addition to any FI’s or PSP’s payments portfolio and the advantages they will see from incorporating it into their business strategy.

Buy now pay later (BNPL) is not a new concept, yet BNPL - as we know it today - has exploded globally over the last few years. In Southeast Asia, the alternative payment method is gaining ground, driven largely by the region’s high internet penetration as well as its substantial younger mobile-first generation. Here, the market is dominated by merchant-focussed offerings from specialised fintechs and established players. However, as a market expected to be worth US$92 million in Southeast Asia by 2025, it is not surprising that banks across the region are considering adding BNPL solutions to their arsenal - the question is, how?

With 97% of consumers in the region preferring to use digital channels to interact with their banks, and 60% of consumers open to switching to a digital bank, it is clear that digital banking can no longer be viewed by FIs as optional, but rather as an essential tool in reaching their current customers and tapping into new market segments.

As the appetite for all things digital increases to include everything cashless, banks in the GCC need to expedite their digital transformation strategies and take advantage of their already established customer bases, consumer trust and loyalty.

In today’s fast-paced payments world, building a processing business to meet the requirements of financial institutions (FIs) old and new, traditional and disruptive, is no mean feat. In this blog, we share the five fundamental building blocks that helped grow our successful business and overcome the complexities of the modern-day payments landscape.

Selecting a new payments processor is a complex task, made more so by the fact that, on the surface, the majority of processors in the market today appear to cover all the bases, with very little between them other than branding and price. We can all acknowledge that the processor an FI decides to partner with will be instrumental to the success of its payments business, so what should be on their shopping list when looking to determine if a processor is the right fit?

The word 'legacy' in the world of payments is typically used to reference the monolithic mainframes built 60+ years ago that surprisingly often still underpin some of the largest banks today. Industry experts, vendors and FIs themselves have used a multitude of forums over the last twenty years or so to denounce the shelf life of older platforms and their projected expiration dates in the modern payments world, yet legacy, in its many forms, still prevails.

The culture surrounding ATMs in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region today is unlike those found in other markets, especially in comparison with Europe and the US, where ATMs are mostly used as cash machines for withdrawals, deposits and the occasional mobile top-up.