Payment Ponderings - A GPC Blog

Cybercriminals targeting ATMs and POS machines had to take a break with the rest of the world during the pandemic as worldwide lockdowns forced the closures of brick-and-mortar businesses, restaurants and stores. Online business surged and in-person cash and card transactions dipped. However, two years on, as business returns to normal and people go back to pre-pandemic ways of spending, the cybercriminals are back and, it seems, with a vengeance!

As with many payment trends, the pandemic accelerated the remittance industry to go digital and allow for fintech innovation to put pressure on traditional means of remittances. A remittance can be described as one person sending money to another, often in another country. It is a multi-billion dollar industry with hundreds of millions of migrant workers sending money home to their families, in order to assist with education, healthcare and other every day finances. In many cases, these remittances fully support their families in their country of origin. Very often, bank accounts are not involved.

Despite the skeptics and the critics, cryptocurrencies are here to stay. For a little while longer, at least! If you have been interested in the concept for a while or are just starting to figure things out, you may be wondering how you can take advantage while it’s still a hot topic. As ATM operators, there is an added revenue opportunity that arises with the widespread interest in getting on the cryptocurrency train. According to Coin ATM Radar, there are more than 35,000 Bitcoin ATMS – or BTMs – in the US, and over 2,500 in Canada. Here's what you need to know.

The effects of the pandemic have had some obvious negative outcomes on the payments industry over the past two years. Lockdowns, reduced economic activity, travel bans and forced closures of businesses have led to sharp decreases in transaction volumes and values. But with countries opening back up and society learning to live in the new normal, what can we expect to see in 2022?

There were several common themes in all payment reports from the end of last year, reporting on payment trends throughout the pandemic:

Have you recently bought something online and been given the option to pay in instalments over a period of time, rather than the entire amount at once? I am guessing that you have seen this option plenty times! While the concept of microlending is not new (it has been around for over a decade), this trend, referred to as “Buy Now, Pay Later” or “BNPL” is one that has seen dramatic growth over the past couple of years, i.e., post pandemic.

While vending kiosks held the largest share of the interactive kiosk market in 2021, the market for banking and financial services kiosks is expected to witness the highest growth of the Compounded Annual Rate of Growth (CARG) of 6.3% by 2027. The sector is projected to grow from USD 28.8 billion in 2022 to 39.2 billion by 2027.

As our world becomes increasingly smaller and more accessible, there is an expectation that things move instantaneously. Money transfers are no exception. Unfortunately, cross-border payments are still lagging, mostly due to archaic banking systems and differing laws and regulations between countries. Currently many cross-border transactions are handled through intermediary banks but this is clunky and inefficient. Legacy cross-border payments lack transparency and because nobody owns the cross-border experience there is low transparency, low predictability, and no standardization.

With all of the attention these days, and particularly following recent global events, on the rise of digital payments and businesses going cashless, you may be wondering what sort of role cash and ATMs will play in the future. Are ATMs still relevant? Will they be in 10 years’ time? As a company that pushes digital payments as the way of the future, we also recognise the very real present and future demands for ATMs and smart ATMs. Here, we consider some of the issues.