Latest Payments reports and research: Finextra Research

Impact Study

Cross-border payments: How is the market addressing G20 targets?

This impact study explores how far along the G20’s cross-border roadmap firms have travelled; why cutting-edge technology platforms are imperative in today’s instant payments world; as well as how financial leaders can go beyond the G20’s objectives, in order to ensure prosperity for the coming decade. The cross-border payments market is one of the fastest growing money movement markets in the world. It reached $150 trillion in 2017, and by 2027 is expected to reach $250 trillion – a rise of over $100 trillion in just ten years. There are several factors that have led to the increase in global remittances, be they wholesale or retail in origin, including expanding supply chains; globalised investment flows; international trade and e-commerce; as well as the increased global movement of people, resulting in more money being sent across borders. While cross-border payments are booming, many financial institutions are still struggling to keep their technology platforms up to speed, and the drive toward real-time is having deep ramifications for organisations’ operations. To address these challenges, a gathering of some of the world’s largest economies, known as the Group of Twenty (G20), set out a roadmap in 2021 to improve cross-border payments. Also providing impetus for widespread modernisation are mandated initiatives like new, and continually evolving, ISO 20022 message and data standards and the European Union (EU)’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) – forcing players in the highly-competitive payments space to invest in smarter services, customer centricity, and on top of that, become the engines of growth. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Temenos, explores: A status update on the G20 cross-border targets; The need for modernisation - an overview of other factors affecting cross-border payments; A roadmap for change beyond G20; Real-life case studies.

19 February 2025 490 downloads

Impact Study

Are you ready for CBPR+? Accelerating modernisation and efficiency through ISO 20022

Challenges and strategies for financial messaging professionals to be CBPR+ compliant by November 2025. Financial institutions’ ISO 20022 for CBPR+ migration timelines vary enormously, yet the deadline is the same for all financial institutions – whether they have fully adopted ISO 20022 or are yet to make significant progress. By November 2025, ISO 20022 will become the sole globally recognised standard for interbank cross-border payments, and the new MX messaging format will fully replace the old MT messaging format. Concerningly, adoption has not picked up as significantly since the co-existence period began in November 2023. In January 2024, the ISO 20022 adoption rate of the top 175 financial institutions stood at 19%. By December 2024, this number had grown to 32.9%. It’s clear that institutions need to significantly accelerate their migration efforts over the next few months – or risk the consequences of non-compliance. ISO 20022 is not just a compliance update – the data-rich format enables organisations to enhance their analytical capabilities, improve their service offering, improve straight-through processing, strengthen anti-money laundering and compliance efforts, and more. This impact study explores readiness for the impending ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline and features commentary from experts at Finastra and Visa. It answers: What needs to happen between today and November? What are the main challenges institutions have been facing? How can they streamline successful strategies to hit compliance by November and beyond? What happens in November 2025 for organisations that have not made the deadline? Join the Finextra webinar, 'The ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline is looming: Are financial organisations prepared?', hosted with Finastra, to learn more.

05 February 2025 338 downloads

Impact Study

Bank Legacy Transformation: Exploring the Solutions

Where do banks stand with legacy transformation today? What are the market factors and changing consumer demands that make transformation increasingly crucial? Legacy transformation is not a new challenge for banks. However, as technology capability continues to advance, along with it the potential for innovation and new business models serving a digital customer base, the pressure of no longer being constrained by legacy infrastructure intensifies. Despite being the central nervous system for banks’ operations for decades serving a business purpose, legacy systems have become inadequate, and those trained to use them may lack the skills needed to meet sophisticated demands for real-time and seamless experiences. Here’s how banks can decouple their systems from each other to evolve and grow, untangle technology challenges to drive digitisation, and invest in technology and employees to ensure obstacles to rapid and gradual modernisation are removed. This impact study, produced in association with Veritran, will: Consider frameworks that prioritise initiatives based on their impact; Explore specific recommendations for each of these challenges; Propose strategies on how to integrate systems that will address data silos; Highlight clear ROI examples, efficiency gains, and enhanced customer outcomes; and Emphasise that there is no need for legacy system abandonment and modernisation can be conducted gradually without disruption.

14 January 2025 452 downloads

White Paper

UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024

In this fourth annual report, APIContext evaluated the performance of UK Open Banking APIs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The UK’s Open Banking system is arguably the most advanced in the world, having been in place since at least 2018. The time in market for this ecosystem offers lessons and best practices to other countries that are looking to implement similar API-driven financial systems; as well as banks and financial institutions that seek to differentiate through quality customer experiences. In this updated report, APIContext evaluates the performance of Open Banking APIs provided by various types of financial institutions in the UK. These include the major “CMA9” banks (the nine largest banks required by UK law to provide Open Banking services), traditional High Street banks, credit card companies, building societies (similar to credit unions in the United States), and new digital banks, often called neobanks. All the data in this report are based on real API calls, having tested the APIs in real-world conditions using the same process that consumers would go through. These calls followed the FAPI (Financial-grade API) standards, which are specifically designed for securely sharing sensitive financial data. The report includes: Key analysis of the UK's Open Banking API performance 2023 - 2024 Availability and reliability of API endpoints Latency metrics (DNS, TCP connect, SSL handshake, processing, and total time) Performance by cloud provider (AWS, IBM, Azure, and Google) Comparative analysis between different bank types (CMA9, traditional, and neobanks) Cloud provider comparison and other detailed findings Key takeaways and recommendations for various players in the ecosystem

13 January 2025 505 downloads

Impact Study

Catering to a new generation through unified card programmes

How Gen Z is changing the payments landscape, why operational costs are soaring, and how a unified card programme can help financial institutions to unlock a competitive advantage and drive growth. Globalisation continues to shape the market as money moves between banks, businesses and even countries quicker and in higher numbers than ever before. Both debit and credit cards remain vital in today’s payment experience but changing consumer demands and the surging popularity of neobanks leave traditional banks fighting for top-of-wallet status. On one hand, traditional banks are battling surging operational costs. From a functionality point of view, the world is getting smaller. Today, there is not much perceived difference to the consumer between debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards. Yet behind the scenes, many banks run each of these products in different platforms and set-ups, each racking up its own costs. Add to this mix services like personal loans/buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes and increasing regulatory demands, you have created the perfect storm: Having to bolt on a new, disparate system every time the services are extended – which costs time, money, and adds high regulatory burden. On the other hand, the consumer expectations of a new generations are shaping the market. Gen Z’s preference for digital, seamless payment methods is changing the financial landscape and traditional banks need to adapt their service offerings in order to match these new demands. This impact study, produced in association with FIS, explores: Increasing cost pressures: Why operational costs are soaring How a new generation is shaping the payments landscape Tackling change: The benefits of a unified card programme Case studies: A practical approach to change Watch the on-demand Finextra webinar with FIS - Unifying card programmes: The cost-reduction imperative

06 December 2024 252 downloads

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

31 October 2024 597 downloads

Event Report

Managing Fraud Risks with Synthetic Data

A Practical Approach for Businesses Services Industry The financial services sector is in a constant state of evolution, and so too are the challenges it faces, particularly in the realm of financial crime. This mounting issue has become a significant concern for institutions, customers and regulators alike. The key to addressing this lies in our approach to data - its quality, management, and applications. Harnessing the power of synthetic data and AI tools has become a pivotal factor in business transformation, particularly in addressing the issue of financial crime. The ability to streamline operations and enhance efficiency is a major challenge businesses face, but the introduction of synthetic data offers promising solutions. Synthetic data provides a comprehensive view of all types of crime, a feature that is crucial for global banks often grappling with segmented fraud activity. This broader perspective enhances the institutions’ capability to effectively fight financial crime. This report summarises the discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, and explores: The role of synthetic data in combatting financial crime Implications of new regulation How synthetic data enhances crime detection A practical apprach for managing fraud risk

22 October 2024 278 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, Instant, Profitable?

A Sibos Special Edition The global payments landscape is in a period of rapid transition, with technologies and regulations making a serious impact. Yet looking to the future of the payments industry, how can we ensure that it is digital, instant, and profitable? While consumer behaviours continue to evolve in tandem with this. Artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Blockchain, and even more pioneering technologies are shaking up the payments systems all in their own way. Adding to this atmosphere of flux, is an developing regulatory framework which promises to alter this situation further. Regulators are facing an uphill battle attempting to legislate on emerging technologies while keeping consumers safe, and providing the best outcome for payment service providers (PSPs). As we move towards milestones like open finance and more rapid payments, there is a chance the payment ecosystem could look quite different within the next few years. Under these growing pressures, global payments organisations will need to ensure that they are able to bend and adapt to the circumstance, or risk snapping. Never has it been more important for PSPs to collaborate with each other, and regulators, to ensure the best outcomes. This Sibos 2024 special edition report, was produced with contributions from Accenture, Deloitte, EBA CLEARING, Finastra, FIS Global, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, PPI AG, Swift, and Wise. It explores: The evolution of instant payments in 2025; The modernisation correspondent banking and cross border payments; Preparing the upcoming EU payments legislation; The key to successful digitalisation; The technology innovations reshaping the payments sector.

17 October 2024 1054 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores: Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

10 October 2024 314 downloads

Impact Study

Mastering the Transition to ISO 20022

Strategies for Compliance and Automated Testing in Financial Services With a regulatory storm incoming, the need for testing solutions – whether they be generic or tailored – is greater than ever before. As the financial services industry undergoes a vast amount change, particularly around the introduction of new rails on the ISO 20022 framework, these tests are proving vital for international banks and other institutions in the chain. Yet, for this sector change is not a binary phase; it is almost always underway. To tackle this challenge in a sustainable way, automation is key – giving institutions the confidence to weather the storm of regulation with ease. With the ISO 20022 standard now a prerequisite, organisations must convince their business leaders that the migration mandated for November is not just an IT project – it is fundamental to company-wide strategy. This impact study, produced in association with Unifits and featuring expert commentary from BearingPoint and Accenture, explores how institutions can master the transition to ISO 20022 and streamline compliance through automated testing. Discover: The impact and evolution of testing The benefits of testing automation The strategic role of technology and compliance Trends to watch: New rails and regulations Real-world case studies And more.

16 September 2024 501 downloads

Impact Study

Microservices Architecture: Future-Proofing Payments Technology

It is high time for banks to move away from legacy thinking and embrace modernisation to remain competitive in the industry. Financial institutions have long been threatened by innovative, tech-savvy fintech firms that do not have to maintain decades-old back-office systems. Core banking systems within banks have evolved, but with additional pressure from incoming regulation and subsequent reporting, progression and modernisation has not kept pace with industry developments. In the US alone, the real-time payments market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% until 2030. An institution’s success in scaling their payment processing in response to this shift will rest heavily on how their systems are set up. Cloud-native payments processing is the most viable option to keep pace with innovation demand and competition; enabling banks to build upon flexibility, at low cost and risk. These enablers also make cloud infrastructure – both public and private – attractive for banks that have struggled to streamline, maintain and upgrade their legacy infrastructures. This Finextra research paper, produced in association with Diebold Nixdorf, explores the opportunities of microservices architecture. It discusses: Then & Now: Monolithic vs. microservices architecture Overcoming microservice challenges The benefits of a micro-approach Real-world examples and cases studies And more. Click here to join the Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Diebold Nixdorf, to watch as our panel of iindustry experts explore the benefits of microservices architecture, and what needs to be done to ensure migrations are streamlined.

27 August 2024 435 downloads

White Paper

APIs, Automation, and AI

An Arsenal to Defend Against Card Transaction Fraud Fraudsters are no longer individuals who are looking to infiltrate gaps or weaknesses in how our businesses are set up. They are expert technologists and strategists that steal customer data, take over accounts and break into tough security measures. Between 2023 and 2027, merchants are expected to lose a total of $343 billion to online payment fraud, driving home the point that the time is now for technology to be leveraged to reduce card transaction fraud, which is growing in numbers and complexity. APIs, automation, and AI are all integral to an effective fraud mitigation strategy in 2024. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with Mastercard, discusses how these technologies – if used in the right way – can support financial institutions evolve to emerging threats with increased speed and accuracy.

12 August 2024 356 downloads

Impact Study

Payment Fraud in 2024: Who is Liable?

Fraud is a billion-dollar business in the Instant Payments era. Statistics show that ecommerce fraud is predicted to exceed $48 billion globally by the end of 2023 alone and could exceed $362 billion between 2023 and 2028. In 2024, banks will not only contend with the changing liability landscape, but the upcoming adoption of ISO 20022 as well. Both represent a historical shift in the financial services industry. To prepare for a higher degree of liability in a data-rich environment, banks need to address the holistic landscape of fraud mitigation. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with NICE Actimize, addresses the changing liability landscape and what banks need to do to prepare for regulatory changes and increased fraud protection. We cover: Shifting liability and the impact of new PSR regulation ISO 20022’s impact on the financial industry Financial industry priorities in 2024 And more.

08 July 2024 640 downloads

Survey

Payments Modernisation: The Big Survey 2024

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Big Survey. Our annual report, surveying 350 senior bankers across the globe, offers a unique vantage point on the ever-evolving landscape of payments modernisation. Over the years, we’ve uncovered fresh developments and enduring challenges alike, painting a detailed picture of the industry’s trajectory. As we navigate 2024, the financial services sector is in the midst of profound transformation. Our latest insights highlight the critical need to modernise payment systems swiftly and effectively, driven by rising customer expectations and stringent regulatory demands. Download our 2024 survey, produced in association with Volante, to learn about: The current state of capabilities Why payments architecture is more flexible than ever before Financial institutions’ budgets and spending priorities The global drive towards real-time and cross-border And much more.

13 June 2024 1166 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Digital Banking in Europe 2024

A Money20/20 Special Edition. In 2023, fintech investment in the EMEA region dropped to $24.5 billion, down from $49.6 billion in 2022 – a seven year low. Macroeconomic and global political conditions are creating challenges for growth, with upcoming general elections around the world adding to the uncertainties in financial ecosystems. Despite these challenges, the outlook for European digital banking remains positive. The region continues to lead in innovation within the financial sector. This Finextra report, a Special Edition for Money20/20 Europe, features interviews with key players in the European financial services and fintech industries. It includes insights from Vodeno, EY, J.P. Morgan, Swift, Tink, and TrueLayer, and explores the following topics that will be addressed in Amsterdam: Hyper-personalisation: Moving towards super apps Embedded payments driving the Banking-as-a-Service revolution Variable recurring payments: The next step in European open banking Is Europe ready for MiCA? From Web1 to Web3, or Markets1 to Markets3 How European fintech is facing macro challenges

04 June 2024 994 downloads