In the most recent World Payments Report released today by Capgemini, RBS and Efma, the continued strong growth of debit, electronic and mobile payments in their respective markets highlight the shifting trend in global payments.
While debit card use was up 15.2 percent globally in the past year, the real surge in the payments industry during that span has been centered around electronic and mobile payments. According to the report, 28.3 billion electronic and mobile payment transactions took place globally in 2011, with forecasts predicating further growth in 2013 with mobile payments reaching 17 billion and e-payments transactions numbering 31.4 billion respectively.
Summarizing the key findings of the report, Kevin Brown, Global Head of Transaction Services Products within the International Banking division of RBS writes, “Debit card transactions continue to take market share from other types of payment methods because they easily allow people to bypass the use of cash.” He continues, “As more and more consumers move to mobile and other electronic payments, we’ll continue to see the exponential growth of innovative payment solutions.”
However the exponential rise of debit and other alternative banking means is not the only interesting finding of the report. The report examines the turbulent relationship between regulation and innovation, suggesting that regulation is beneficial to growth but only to a certain extent. Furthermore the report determines that the BRIC association no longer carries weight for the payments industry. The Brazilian market has moved to become the second biggest payments market following the U.S. and that each of the other BRIC members are starting to diverge from a common payment growth track, thus each should be analyzed individually.
While the swell in debit, electronic and mobile transactions is well documented, the developments within the different BRIC markets should push the payments industry to invest more attention into emerging markets, even those in the second tier of growth behind the BRIC’s.
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