Digital wallets are increasingly common in the business world, AI is playing an ever more important role, and there may be a big breakthrough for instant payments between companies. Below are three payment trends that will come to the fore in 2024, according to Mads Krumhardt Enggren, CEO of Eurocard.
Virtual corporate cards in digital wallets
- A trend that could already be seen last year and will gather pace in 2024 is the number of virtual credit cards added to digital wallets. This development is still mainly being driven by private consumers; for example, Apple expects the number of Apple Pay users to reach 640 million this year and Mastercard will launch its Click to Pay payment solution in 2024. Now, however, we are also seeing a growing number of employees wanting to add one or more cards to an app, mobile phone, tablet or computer, for instance, and then pay for products and services without having to disclose their card number, or similarly sensitive information, every time they make a purchase.
The use of AI in payments
-AI is making in-roads in many areas, including payments. This year we will hear much more about AI-based solutions that help with authentication during purchases to prevent and detect fraud.
-One such solution is Decision Intelligence Pro from Mastercard, which can analyse thousands of data points in a single transaction and is said to increase the detection of suspicious transactions by several hundred per cent. This type of AI-based solution also reduces the number of "false declines", i.e. purchases that are legitimate but are still declined due to different sets of rules. This means that in addition to more effectively safeguarding purchases against fraud, payment products are becoming
more reliable.
Instant payments between companies
- There has long been demand from companies for a solution that would allow them to receive and send instant payments between them. Currently, it often takes at least one banking day to make a standard digital payment. An instant payment, on the other hand, reaches the recipient’s account in a matter of seconds, 24 hours a day, all year.
-At the same time, this offers an alternative to invoice-based payment and ensures that companies are paid on time and therefore improves their cash flow. In some countries, instant payments are already possible and regulation at European level is under way, initially covering smaller amounts exchanged between consumers and companies, and between smaller businesses. Many issues have yet to be resolved, but 2024 could still be something of a breakthrough year.
