The payments industry is faced with several challenges that have been building over the last decade. One of the most critical amongst these challenges is the need to acquire and retain talent with the specialised skills demanded by the ever-evolving payments landscape. Going into 2024, these are the trends to watch.
New technologies, particularly API technology and open banking, are revolutionising
payment products, making transactions more efficient and fast. Solutions such as Account-
to-Account (A2A) payments cut out the middleman, credit and debit cards, and facilitate
direct payments from a consumer's bank account.
There is increased demand for specialised technical skills, as payments companies invest
heavily in talent capable of developing and integrating these innovations. It’s a competitive
market and retaining this talent is a challenge, making it vital to offer competitive packages,
flexible work models and other enticing benefits.
There have also been strategic acquisitions to obtain these technologies and skills in-house.
However, owning your own technology, and the talent to use it, is expensive - as a result
there are a growing number of B2B solution providers partnering with payment players.
Innovation is not just confined to technology developments in the payments space.
Fraudsters and cybercriminals are also innovating, increasingly leveraging social
engineering through tactics such as Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud.
At the same time, the rise of real-time payments creates more challenges. Fraudulent
transactions can’t be reversed when they happen in real-time. As the industry increasingly
moves towards real-time payments, finding and retaining cybersecurity talent becomes
paramount to combat the evolving threat landscape.
Customer experience and personalisation are a key trend in the payments space,
increasingly the only differentiating factors between different solutions. In this environment,
the user experience (UX) and the overall payment journey have become critical for both
attracting and retaining new customers for both payments companies and merchants.
Payment companies are also expected to play a pivotal role in providing data and analytics,
on customer behaviour and payment trends, helping merchants to personalise offers and
enhance the overall customer journey.
The digitalisation of B2B payments has been slow compared to B2C payments, but I expect
this to change in 2024. Solutions such as A2A payments are part of this trend, providing
merchants with ways to pay suppliers as well as refund or, in sectors such as iGaming and
Forex, deposit funds in their customers’ accounts.
Merchants are also bringing payments operations in-house to enhance control and customer
experience, utilising Corporate Treasury Management Systems and other SaaS platforms.
However, the challenge lies in acquiring and retaining skilled talent to implement and
manage these technologies and achieve the expected ROI.
Striking a balance between in-house capabilities and third-party providers will be crucial as
the focus on B2B payments builds.
While it remains to be seen whether the trends and challenges above will evolve further,
talent management will be key to capitalising or mitigating against them.
