Several hundred payment professionals attended Wnet's PayTechWomenLive event in November 2020. The latest episode of the virtual series featured Ann Cairns, executive vice chair at Mastercard. Cairns, a UK-based payments industry veteran, shared highlights from her decades of leadership and encouraged audience members to be proactive and think ahead in their careers. In opening comments, Jessica Turner, executive vice president, product and innovation, North America, Mastercard, described Cairns as a senior ambassador and executive leader who represents Mastercard around the world.
"She is recognized as someone who's not afraid to break through barriers in a male dominated profession," Turner said. "[Cairns] has built partnerships with governments, telecommunication companies and humanitarian organizations. Today we'll show how a post COVID-19 business environment that works better for a woman works better for everyone."
Like most major industry events in 2020, the eighth annual convention of The National ATM Council Inc., held in October, took place entirely online. With agility and foresight, conference planners reprised many aspects of the organization's in-person shows to make members and their guests feel inspired and at home throughout the virtual experience. In opening comments, George Sarantopoulos, NAC chair and founder and CEO of Access One Solutions Inc., thanked sponsors, exhibitors, attendees, and NAC's board and conference committee for their generous support.
"As you know, our businesses and our trade organization are facing an unprecedented challenge," Sarantopoulos said. "But we have done our best to make this a fun, interactive platform with top companies and a robust agenda. You can still interact with each other pretty much like you do in person, but don't hesitate to hit up the help desk if you get lost." In recalling last year's sell-out NAC convention at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood, Bruce Renard, NAC executive director, said a key advantage of going digital is that more independent ATM industry stakeholders were able to attend without having to pay for travel or take time away from work.
The global market for payment processing solutions is expanding rapidly, with the North American market accounting for much of that growth. This is according to the global market intelligence firm Acumen Research and Consulting. Acumen projects the global payment processing solutions market will expand at a combined annual growth rate of about 15.2 percent over the next seven years to reach $102.3 billion by 2027.
The North American market will account for “significant revenue share” in the global market, according to Acumen, as preferences grow for online and mobile payments, and the availability of mobile phones and advanced safe IT infrastructures make these all the more appealing to traditional card payments. “Rapid digitization across the globe, increasing preference for online payment, and players focused on providing enhanced service in order to enhance the consumer experience are major factors expected to drive the growth of the global market,” the firm said in a statement.
The COVID-19 pandemic has sent millions of consumers online for purchases they had been making in-store. Now, a new report from Juniper Research suggests online buying isn't just a fix for a temporary situation, but a long-term trend. Juniper expects transaction values for online sales of physical goods to surge 33 percent between now and 2025. By the time the books are closed on 2020, the U.K.-based research firm said, ecommerce sales of physical goods worldwide will total $3.3 trillion for the year; that total will swell to $4.4 trillion in 2025.
Juniper also expects OEM pay schemes (smartphone-based wallet schemes such as Apple Pay and Google Pay) to be a major contributor to this growth, with purchase volumes for remote goods purchases expected to grow 730 percent globally between 2020 and 2025. "The pandemic has fundamentally altered customer behaviors towards ecommerce, with these behaviors likely to be sustained in the longer term," Juniper said in a press statement.
The OneSpan Global Financial Regulations Report, published Nov. 17, 2020, correlates regulatory trends with the coronavirus pandemic. OneSpan's first regulatory study explores the impact of digital identity, regulatory and legislative initiatives on fraud prevention, data protection, payments, Open Banking, e-signatures and other commercial banking practices. OneSpan executives Michael Magrath, director, global regulations and standards, and Gabrielle Rosas, strategy and global regulatory researcher, provide an overview of regulatory initiatives in the report.
The co-authors observed that regulators around the world have modeled their approaches to onboarding and e-signatures on Digital Identity Guidance published in March 2020 by the Financial Action Task Force.
One week before Black Friday, many consumers had already begun their shopping, albeit with fewer face-to-face interactions. A flurry of reports released recently suggest spending will be at or near 2019 levels, as consumers seek low-touch shopping options. Fifty-nine percent of consumers had begun their holiday shopping as of early November, according to a survey fielded by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
This follows strong retail sales gains in October, despite the economic uncertainties brought on by COVID-19. Overall, retail sales were up 10.6 percent in October 2020 compared to October 2019, according to the NRF. And for the first 10 months of the year, retail sales were up 6.4 percent over the same period in 2019.
"Consumers have proven their resilience and willingness to spend as we head into the heart of the holiday season, and retailers continue to demonstrate their commitment and ability to ensure safe shopping environments for their customers and associates, with deep discounts, robust inventory and great experiences whether in-store or online," said Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO. 
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