In 2019, the industry expected the digital payments market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 10% over the next five years, with an increasing demand for cashless and digital payments. The pandemic has accelerated this growth with the step-change in consumer behaviours; government policies and regulations; retailers embracing cashless and alternative payment methods; as well as innovations within the payment space (buy now - pay later, digital wallets, e-cash, cryptocurrencies, etc).
In comparison, the global digital payment market size is now expected to reach USD 236.10 billion by 2028, according to a report by Grand View Research. It is projected to register a CAGR of 19.4% from 2021 to 2028.
There have been some other trends, not linked to the coronavirus pandemic, that are also surfacing. Cross-border payments due to Brexit is a key one, and volatility in the market due to the US elections is also another.
The significant growth in digital payments has introduced new challenges for payment providers and forced them to be more innovative and agile in order to survive and thrive during the disruption.
In this article, we will look more closely at the top trends and challenges of the past year, business areas most impacted and, most importantly, how payment providers can use cognitive automation technologies (such as robotic process automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and others) to navigate and succeed in the ever-changing market.
Rise in gaming and gambling customers
More customers are joining payment platforms to either transact for online shopping, use gaming and gambling applications, or to use new forms of credit functionality. Payment providers need to manage this increased demand and adapt their due diligence and KYC processes, in order to account for the increased risk associated with new and some previously underbanked customers. Automation helps accelerate the practice of screening, providing stricter and quicker onboarding processes.
Robotic process automation (RPA), in particular, helps payment organisations replicate repetitive manual human checks in these onboarding processes. It parses through transaction history to identify sources of funds and eliminates false positives while also integrating with intelligent document processing solutions, in order to accurately verify identification documents and statements.
Rise in online fraud and potential money laundering
Payment providers are constantly battling the rise of online fraud and potential cases of money laundering, which we have also seen an increase of during the pandemic.
RPA, coupled with machine learning (ML), has helped organisations scan through millions of transactions to identify patterns of potential fraud and automatically raise suspicious activity reports. The technology can also block transactions and customer or merchant accounts, and help organisations strengthen their compliance processes, avoiding any penalties and reputational damage due to non-compliance. Analysis of report logs also helps firms identify key gaps in their Fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.
Rise of chargebacks, disputes and demands on customer service
Lastly, massive disruptions in the travel and tourism industry have led to a huge increase in chargebacks and refund requests being processed by payment providers. Automation has been used effectively to deal with the increased volume of these chargebacks and refunds, allowing customer service teams to focus on more complex issues and tasks.
Natural language processing solutions, such as automated email classifiers and virtual assistants/chatbots, are being extensively used to support customer service teams to deal with high volumes of customer complaints and disputes.
The automation journey – where to start
Automation has typically been seen as a solution to highly manual, simple back-office processes. With the introduction of Intelligent Automation, organisations are able to expand the possibilities of automation into more complex, core business processes.
However, introducing an automation rollout in a business can be a challenging and complex process. It is worth considering bringing project management skills to the table by engaging a skilled and qualified project manager. We advise organisations who are yet to commence their automation journey to typically start with a simple and small Proof-of-Value (PoV) phase, with a time frame of six to eight weeks. During this phase, companies should work with their chosen automation vendor to identify a few critical business processes and define the challenges and the right technology combination to drive the optimal solution.
Because of such a shortened time frame, organisations usually see a payback within six to ten months and normally a very high return on investment.
Organisations can work with their automation partner to create their Automation Centre of Excellence; setting up operating models and governance to ensure they can successfully and sustainably scale their automation initiatives widely across the whole enterprise, while systematically building their own internal digital capability.
The current pandemic has hit the global economy in a way no one expected or predicted, but it also allowed most organisations to understand the importance of automation - not just in the back-office, but also in core business processes. Automation will no longer stay a choice, but instead will become a necessity for organisations in order to remain competitive and even to sustain in the near to medium future.
About Devin Kleu
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