To Know What’s Next in Payments, First Look Back

As we wrap up 2024, PYMNTS’ “What’s Next in Payments” series has provided insights from industry leaders on the current and future state of play for banking, payments and the connected economy.

Here are five thought-provoking comments from executives that stood out this year, offering a glimpse into the future of finance in 2025 from the series.

Future of Generative AI

In February, we started out with one of the issues that would come to define the year: artificial intelligence, and in particular, generative AI.

Billtrust CEO Sunil Rajasekar told PYMNTS at the time that regulation will help ensure there are checks and balances in the AI realm, ensuring that explainability is factored into models as they are developed and as they evolve. The guardrails and staggered implementations will be especially critical as AI becomes more fully integrated into everything from traffic to defense systems.

“I do believe that the overall trajectory is going to ‘up and to the right,’” Rajasekar said of generative AI’s future. “There may be stumbles along the way … but I am excited about where we are and what’s coming next.”

Bank Evolution

Fast forward to April and on the face of it, the question “What is a bank?” was once a simple one to answer. Not anymore.

In a round of interviews housed within the “What’s Next in Payments” series, 14 executives offered insights and observations about the changing, fluid nature of financial services, where the only constant is evolution, and where competition for share of wallets and consumer loyalty has been fierce.

Our favorite quote was from Michael Haney, head of product strategy at Galileo Financial Technologies, who said: “The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin of consumers not being forced to go where their bank is, and instead have the bank come to them.”

Runner up? Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy said banks have to break down their walled gardens to give customers what they truly want.

“The institutions must play some catch-up, as they’re competing with Apple Pay circa 10 years ago, when the world is moving on to directory services, risk and authentication,” he said. “What banking clients are looking for is a continuum of financial services, with payments at the center of it all.”

Payments Modernization

At June’s halfway point, we asked for a definition of payments modernization. Again, there’s an argument that the responses could have been simple, but we found some interesting clues in the complexity of the answers.

Seth Perlman, global head of product at i2c, said the end goal of innovation and payments modernization “is to help the consumer get to their money — and use it — more efficiently and quickly.”

That was a theme PYMNTS heard consistently.

“The customer, regardless of whether it is a consumer or a business, they’re driving a lot of this change with their expectations,” said Rossana Thomas, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Payments Platform at Fiserv. “And the technology is driving those expectations to be more real time, more instant. Customers want flexibility with making payments.”

Digital Transformation

We entered the third quarter with our September question: “Wow do you do digital?” The question played off our “How the World Does Digital” landmark research report of 11 digital activities across 11 countries.

It was interesting that fraud detection and defense showed up big in our executive comments, with several pointing out that the first step is ensuring that someone interacting with a bank or merchant is who they claim.

“Markets like Brazil and India are rapidly embracing mobile-first solutions and are fully on board with digital transformation, with everyone looking for new ways to work with financial services,” Prove Identity Chief Marketing Officer Brad Rosenfeld said.

“Smartphones are with you every second of every day,” he added. “Mobile identity verification solutions can significantly enhance the customer experience by allowing seamless identity verification while reducing fraud.”

Battling Fraud

Finally, we tackled fraud head-on in December, asking our panel of executives to discuss how banks and other financial institutions are winning the fight against fraud.

The democratization of financial services has created connectivity between banks, merchants and consumers. Open banking, for instance, allows consumers to link their bank accounts with third-party apps, providing personalized financial insights and services.

Meanwhile, businesses are increasingly using payment networks that facilitate instant cross-border transactions, and merchants are adopting sophisticated tools to offer frictionless checkout experiences.

Our favorite quote was from Akbar Hussain, co-founder and general counsel at TerraPay.

“It’s like if someone has a terrible accident in a swimming pool, it doesn’t affect the neighbor’s swimming pool,” he said. “But if the neighbor has a COVID infection, it affects everyone.”

Runner up was Boost Payment Solutions Chief Compliance Officer Elly Aiala, who said fraudsters are using “technological advances, such as generative AI, to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks … preying on opportunities like product launches or exploiting regulatory changes. It’s a constant challenge.”