Digital Initiatives Key to Global Economic Growth

Large merchants and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are expanding their digital initiatives to meet customer demands, PayU Global Payments CEO Mario Shiliashki writes in the PYMNTS eBook “Baseline 2022: What the Next Six Months Holds.” But in a challenging economic environment, working with partners that can drive profitability is more important than ever.

2022 has turned out to be so different from what we expected at the start of the year — war, inflation, wild currency fluctuations, seismic geopolitical shifts, bursting bubbles, new COVID variants … and we are only halfway through.

In the FinTech world, such challenges can push the imagination, catalyze technological adoption, drive innovation, ultimately shaping the present and redefining the future in unexpected ways.

Case in point: COVID-19 was a shock to public health but its impact has resulted in a big increase in the usage of eCommerce and mass adoption of digital payments.

Fast forward to the present, concerns about inflation continue to dominate the headlines. However, in the first half of 2022, the volume of transactions on PayU’s global online payment platform increased significantly from a year ago and continue growing.

According to the economist consensus, among developing economies, growth is projected to fall from 6.6% in 2021 to 3.4% in 2022. But in some emerging markets, the overall decline has been relatively modest. Latin American markets like Brazil have benefited from higher commodity prices, while South Africa has recorded strong performance. These markets currently offer vast opportunities for growth.

Rising to the Occasion

In this global environment, large merchants and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are expanding their digital initiatives to meet changing customer demands. But profitability is back on the agenda in force and growth must be profitable. Therefore, working with the partners that can help drive profitability for merchants is key. Financial inclusion, meanwhile, must continue to be a key priority to ensure that everyone can participate in the digital economy.

Against this backdrop, we at PayU continue to innovate and evolve with the market, to help drive value to our merchant partners and their customers. We are integrating more and more alternative payment methods in the PayU Hub and expanding our buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering to boost convenience and financial inclusion. We are building a dedicated technical team that will further help innovate on crypto rails for faster and cheaper cross-border settlements and payouts.

What’s more, we continue to invest in our anti-fraud tools and teams. Amid ever-increasing digitization, security must continue to be a key responsibility.

The PayU Approach

At PayU, our vision is to create a world without financial borders where everyone can prosper. As we work to actualize this in terms of our offering to businesses, consumers and other stakeholders, draw on the support of the brightest payment professionals across the markets we serve. One of the ways we continue to serve our communities of local merchants and consumers, as well as global merchants reaching into new markets, is by investing in our people and ensuring we have a culture and environment where everyone can bring their A game.

Beyond growth and profitability, we are on a journey as a company to create a positive impact on the environment, our communities and on society overall. Optimists by nature, we will continue to push ourselves to be an economy driver in emerging markets, with more investment, more jobs, and more support for SMBs.

In the current global environment, PayU is more committed than ever to bringing our vision to life. During uncertain times, our work to boost financial inclusion and shape the future of FinTech continues.