Instant payments could benefit all reaches of the travel and hospitality industries, as customers enjoy a better experience, companies see higher revenues and workers get faster payouts.

Business travel is a significant revenue driver for the travel and hospitality industries. However, travelers typically cover expenses out of pocket, relying on subsequent reimbursement by their companies. Accelerating this process could be a huge help in alleviating financial strain and improving business travelers’ overall experience.

Although businesses face challenges in adopting new payments technology, savvy travel and hospitality firms recognize the competitive advantage instant payments offer and are seizing the opportunity.

Traditional FIs are increasingly contending with competition from challengers, especially as younger generations look outside their primary banks for certain financial services. In fact, studies show that young consumers favor using a service, card or app from a provider other than their bank for online payments.

New banking systems are often difficult to integrate into existing technology stacks. Despite the integration challenges, many banks are pressing ahead with new embedded finance strategies to expand product offerings and enhance customer loyalty.

Rather than attempting to wedge one-size-fits-all digital solutions into existing technology stacks, banks can embrace a far more agile and future-proof approach. Composable banking allows for seamless integration of best-of-breed components and services from a vast ecosystem of innovative technology partners.

Some of the healthcare industry’s most pressing operational pain points arise from inefficient and outdated payments and claims processes that threaten the industry’s financial health.

As digital transformation continues to make its way into everyday life, the healthcare industry is increasingly ready to explore its potential. Innovators across the industry are tackling inefficiencies and improving patients’ experiences — one payment at a time.

While digital payments can profoundly improve the healthcare industry — from patient experiences to operational efficiencies — they also face resistant challenges, the solutions for which are neither easy to implement nor industry-standard.

PYMNTS Intelligence interviews Misty Meraz, Vice President, Healthcare and Public Sector Payment Solutions at Elavon, on how healthcare organizations can improve patient collections by adopting an omnichannel payments strategy.

Vaulting has been proven to provide a streamlined and convenient payment process while also enabling stringent anti-fraud security measures. Merchants have only just begun to tap its potential to aid in customer retention, better authorization rates and cost reduction.

Vaulting offers considerable cost savings for companies in the long run by leveraging customer data to mitigate potential sources of payment failure. Preserving these revenues — along with the customers they represent — is most crucial to subscription businesses.

Personalized goods and services generate significant revenue for many organizations, including payment providers. Vaulting allows firms to leverage customer data to offer tailored experiences to individual customers.

Workers across the board benefit from on-demand pay, especially those who live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford unexpected expenses. For many workers, instant payroll is something that should be taken for granted.

Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the demand for real-time payroll and are gradually implementing it in their workplaces. Meanwhile, some workers, growing impatient with their employers’ delays in adopting the trend, are turning to third-party services for real-time access to their earnings.

Financially stable employees appreciate the support they have received on their financial journeys, and organizations have a unique opportunity to offer this support in the form of instant payroll services. Doing so could encourage increased employee loyalty and reduced turnover.

Adoption of open banking in the U.S. could shift into high gear with a recent rule proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requiring FIs to share data with both consumers and third parties. However, industry support for the proposed rule as written is far from unanimous.

Industry groups are not alone in their concerns. Both consumers and businesses could benefit from having better access to bank data, but their perceptions of open banking’s cybersecurity risks are also posing barriers to adoption.

Despite the hurdles, open banking’s potential to revolutionize the payments industry is clear. Financial service providers could have unparalleled access to banking data, allowing them to make real-time payments implementations more readily than ever before.

BNPL financing has become widely popular in recent years as a means of defraying the increasing costs of many goods, especially among younger consumers with less spending power but greater digital savvy.

Surging consumer demand has spurred many banks and FIs to offer BNPL services of their own as a way of attracting new customers. Many institutions are tapping third parties to help them achieve their BNPL ambitions.

FinTechs may have been quicker on the BNPL draw than banks, but traditional FIs are catching up fast. Their ability to offer comprehensive and trusted financial services could give them the edge in the long run.

Through open banking, banks and FIs could go far to satisfy consumer demands for enhanced payment experiences and drive adoption of innovative banking tools, thereby positioning themselves as leaders in the dynamic open banking landscape.

Open banking holds immense potential to radically enhance the payment journey, but its widespread adoption remains held back by concerns over data privacy and security, both of which are significant roadblocks to building consumer trust. Banks and FIs are slowly acknowledging these obstacles and working to address them.

The regulatory landscape for open banking is in its early days, but activity is intensifying. Regulator and stakeholder participation should focus on codifying a regulatory framework that balances the needs of consumers with the requirements of banks and FIs — key for broader consumer acceptance of the open banking system and its long-term durability.