The U.S. is known for, among other things, being a “more is more” kind of place. Sometimes that is a good thing (case in point: our $1 trillion-a-year restaurant industry). Sometimes, not so much (check out our student debt numbers). The question for U.S. merchants and payments players is how to offer up more – more speed, more service options – and then make those options scalable and exportable. And, for good measure, to future-proof them against markets that tend to swing wildly.
Data:
$1.6 trillion: Amount outstanding in U.S. student loans.
47 percent: Increase in cross-border transactions from the U.S. between 2017 and 2019.
40: Number of nations that had real-time payment systems in place by 2018.
$10: Price of a single share of Blue Apron at the time of its IPO.
3 percent: Share of U.S. restaurants’ annual transactions that are done digitally.