Non-Cash Payments Market Closer To Reality?

A new report from Currency Cloud shines light on the hidden transaction market, which includes an entire sector of payments that are non-cash-based and thrive on being both fast and convenient for consumers.

Currency Cloud’s World Payments Report 2015 provides an in-depth look at the development of the global payments landscape, with a specific focus on the emerging infrastructure designed to support non-cash payments.

In terms of the report, non-cash payments fall into one of four categories: closed loop cards and mobile apps; digital wallets; mobile money; and virtual currencies.

The World Payments Report 2015 estimates that the figures for the hidden payments market could be between 25 billion and 40 billion, noting that even these numbers represent a conservative estimate.

In 2013 alone, the volume of the global non-cash payments market reached 357.9 billion, with a growth rate of 7.6 percent. While the growth was understandably more significant in the North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, Currency Cloud explained that developing countries also recorded marked improvement.

“A more effective collaboration between banks, agencies and telecommunications companies, as well as payments service providers, aided growth in emerging non-cash markets,” the company said Tuesday (Dec. 15) in a blog post.

One of the biggest drivers behind the growth of the hidden payments market is consumer demand. Non-traditional providers are stepping up to meet that demand, utilizing technological advances to spur innovation in the space.

“As non-banks are only subject to consumer, rather than financial, regulation, they are able to offer greater degrees of flexibility and faster transactions,” Currency Cloud said.

“The World Payments Report 2015 found that 82 percent of industry representatives believe this is becoming an issue for the banking sector that, restrained by a larger infrastructure and tighter legislation, is struggling to keep pace with the more agile hidden transaction movers.”