Latest Payments reports and research: Finextra Research

Survey

Navigating the Nordic financial landscape: 2025 challenges and priorities

As the Nordic financial sector faces new hurdles and opportunities, a variety of issues are front and centre for financial institutions, technology providers, and fintechs. Our latest survey of 150 responses reveals how Nordic institutions across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are navigating the current landscape and their strategic priorities for 2025. Providing valuable insights into areas such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), Verification of Payee (VoP), AI’s growing role in financial services, perspectives on central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoin, and evolving payment trends such as Account-to-Account (A2A) and instant payments.  Analysis of our survey responses provides a comprehensive overview on how Nordic institutions are navigating transformation shaped by innovation, regulation, and evolving customer expectations, with progress and priorities varying by country. We explore regional specific views towards: Key priorities for 2025 Readiness for Verification of Payee (VoP) Strategic AI integration for real impact The rise of A2A, instant, and mobile payments Attitudes towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoin The impact of DORA

28 April 2025 204 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of US Digital Payments 2025: ACH & Beyond

A special edition for Nacha's Smarter Faster Payments 2025. The US digital payments landscape stands at a transformative crossroads. With the launch of RTP in 2016 and FedNow in 2023, the foundational infrastructure for instant payments is finally in place - poised to revolutionise the speed, efficiency, and security of transactions across the economy. Yet despite these advancements, the path to widespread adoption remains complex and cautious. Entrenched systems like ACH and Wire, with their deep integration and long-standing reliability, continue to dominate due to their established utility and the significant investment required to pivot toward newer rails. It’s not just a question of technological readiness, but of mindset, cost, and strategy. The advantages of instant payments—real-time access to funds, reduced credit risk, and improved liquidity—are clear. However, to truly unlock these benefits, banks and institutions must overcome the inertia of legacy systems and embrace modernisation, often with the support of flexible, cloud-native solutions that can de-risk and streamline the transition. This Finextra report, in association with Form 3, explores industry sentiment on the future of US digital payments and showcases the views of BNY, Citizens, Green Dot, J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bank, and the US Faster Payments Council. It explores: Evolving ACH infrastructure; Enhancing RPT and FedNow capabilities; How new rails interact with existing rails; Redefining transactional architecture through emerging technologies; Recognising risk as a strategic advantage in fraud prevention; Prioritising innovation and compliance at the same time.

25 April 2025 174 downloads

Event Report

ISO 20022 for CBPR+: Driving Efficiency and Innovation in Financial Messaging

How far is the industry along its ISO 20022 for CBPR+ journey? The financial industry is on the brink of a significant transformation with the implementation of ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+). This new standard promises to revolutionise transaction handling by offering enhanced data quality, improved compliance, and greater operational efficiency. The shift from the current MT format, which is becoming insufficient in today’s data-driven and regulatory-focused environment, to ISO 20022 addresses these challenges with a more structured and comprehensive framework for financial messaging. This transition is crucial for banks and non-bank financial institutions to understand and prepare for as it enables more effective communication across borders and systems. The reconciliation of payments, especially for corporate and SME sectors, demands accuracy in linking all related data. ISO 20022 significantly streamlines this process by enhancing data richness and interoperability across various payment systems. This report highlights the key takeaways of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Finastra, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: How far the industry has come in the transition, the challenges organisations are facing, and the strategic importance of ISO 20022 for CBPR+ adoption.

15 April 2025 209 downloads

Event Report

The US Instant Payments Landscape: Navigating Growth and Challenges

The increasing demand for instant payment solutions is a key trend driving the adoption of faster payments. This webinar report explores what is holding instant payments back in the US. In the US, real-time payments (RTP) have grown significantly since The Clearing House introduced them in 2017. Currently, the RTP network covers approximately 70% of customer accounts in the US, with transaction volumes and values rising dramatically. The Federal Reserve’s FedNow service, launched in mid-2023, has also contributed to this growth, processing a substantial number of payments in its initial quarters. These networks provide low-cost, efficient payment solutions that are gaining popularity for both consumer and business transactions. Despite this progress, challenges remain in the adoption of faster payments. Interoperability between different payment systems and networks is a primary issue. While domestic instant payments are becoming more common, cross-border instant payments face obstacles due to the complexity of multi-currency transactions and varying regulations across countries. Additionally, the regulatory environment in the US does not mandate the adoption of faster payments, which can slow down the pace of implementation compared to other markets with regulatory mandates. This report highlights the key takeaways of a Finextra webinar, hosted for the PREDICT 2025 campaign, by a panel of industry experts. It aims to answer: What is holding Faster Payments back in the US and how much progress can be attributed to open banking and the ISO 20022 standard? Which applications of Faster Payments in the UK are transferrable to the US? With RtP and FedNow, how much choice is too much choice? What evidence is there that the financial services industry is at a tipping point and technology must be leveraged to ramp up adoption?

28 February 2025 348 downloads

White Paper

Confirmation of Payee progress and APP fraud mitigation: Where are we now?

This report compares Confirmation of Payee progress and APP fraud mitigation across EMEA, APAC and North America, and features expert commentary from AccessPay, Bottomline, Finastra and NatWest. APP fraud losses are expected to double across EMEA, APAC and North America, and legislation mandating CoP on a national or regional basis must be established across the globe. It is estimated that APP fraud losses in the UK, India and the UK will hit $5.25 billion, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 21% across the 2022-2026 period, according to an ACI Worldwide and GlobalData report. Action must be taken, and if regulations are not put in place, financial institutions and PSPs must ensure they are leveraging technology solutions to bolster verification mechanisms themselves. Striking the balance between protecting the end customers, adding minimal friction to processes, and assessing fraud prevention procedures will be a cumbersome, yet important, project. This Finextra report, produced in association with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, explores how to meet that need, and: The state of play for APP fraud and misdirected payment fraud across EMEA, APAC, and North America; How success stories in EMEA will set the trend for other regions; The impact non-CoP initiation in APAC will have on international payments; and What the future holds for technology solutions that can detect account activity in North America.

26 February 2025 607 downloads

Event Report

Risk-based authentication: Enhancing security and user experience in fraud prevention

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the importance of robust cross-channel authentication cannot be overstated. As businesses and consumers increasingly interact across multiple platforms, ensuring secure and seamless authentication processes is paramount. Online platforms have become integral to modern financial activities, which necessitates secure and seamless transactions, backed up by robust authentication mechanisms. Risk-based authentication offers a dynamic security approach, balancing user convenience with stringent fraud prevention. The integration of cross-channel data and advanced technologies like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is vital, as well as access and understanding of data. High-quality data is the cornerstone of effective fraud prevention and detection, which is why organisations must invest in robust data engineering practices to ensure collected data is accurate and well-labelled. This investment enables the development of sophisticated models to better identify and prevent fraudulent activities. Prioritising data quality enhances fraud prevention strategies, protecting businesses and their customers from potential threats. So how can organisations holistically address risk-based authentication in a dynamic world? This webinar report summarises the discussion of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Mastercard, and explores: Risk-based authentication in fraud prevention; Adapting fraud prevention to evolving threats; Advanced authentication strategies for corporate fraud prevention; Digital IDs, channels, and exclusion.

21 February 2025 273 downloads

Impact Study

Cross-border payments: How is the market addressing G20 targets?

This impact study explores how far along the G20’s cross-border roadmap firms have travelled; why cutting-edge technology platforms are imperative in today’s instant payments world; as well as how financial leaders can go beyond the G20’s objectives, in order to ensure prosperity for the coming decade. The cross-border payments market is one of the fastest growing money movement markets in the world. It reached $150 trillion in 2017, and by 2027 is expected to reach $250 trillion – a rise of over $100 trillion in just ten years. There are several factors that have led to the increase in global remittances, be they wholesale or retail in origin, including expanding supply chains; globalised investment flows; international trade and e-commerce; as well as the increased global movement of people, resulting in more money being sent across borders. While cross-border payments are booming, many financial institutions are still struggling to keep their technology platforms up to speed, and the drive toward real-time is having deep ramifications for organisations’ operations. To address these challenges, a gathering of some of the world’s largest economies, known as the Group of Twenty (G20), set out a roadmap in 2021 to improve cross-border payments. Also providing impetus for widespread modernisation are mandated initiatives like new, and continually evolving, ISO 20022 message and data standards and the European Union (EU)’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) – forcing players in the highly-competitive payments space to invest in smarter services, customer centricity, and on top of that, become the engines of growth. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Temenos, explores: A status update on the G20 cross-border targets; The need for modernisation - an overview of other factors affecting cross-border payments; A roadmap for change beyond G20; Real-life case studies.

19 February 2025 481 downloads

Impact Study

Are you ready for CBPR+? Accelerating modernisation and efficiency through ISO 20022

Challenges and strategies for financial messaging professionals to be CBPR+ compliant by November 2025. Financial institutions’ ISO 20022 for CBPR+ migration timelines vary enormously, yet the deadline is the same for all financial institutions – whether they have fully adopted ISO 20022 or are yet to make significant progress. By November 2025, ISO 20022 will become the sole globally recognised standard for interbank cross-border payments, and the new MX messaging format will fully replace the old MT messaging format. Concerningly, adoption has not picked up as significantly since the co-existence period began in November 2023. In January 2024, the ISO 20022 adoption rate of the top 175 financial institutions stood at 19%. By December 2024, this number had grown to 32.9%. It’s clear that institutions need to significantly accelerate their migration efforts over the next few months – or risk the consequences of non-compliance. ISO 20022 is not just a compliance update – the data-rich format enables organisations to enhance their analytical capabilities, improve their service offering, improve straight-through processing, strengthen anti-money laundering and compliance efforts, and more. This impact study explores readiness for the impending ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline and features commentary from experts at Finastra and Visa. It answers: What needs to happen between today and November? What are the main challenges institutions have been facing? How can they streamline successful strategies to hit compliance by November and beyond? What happens in November 2025 for organisations that have not made the deadline? Join the Finextra webinar, 'The ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline is looming: Are financial organisations prepared?', hosted with Finastra, to learn more.

05 February 2025 337 downloads

Impact Study

Bank Legacy Transformation: Exploring the Solutions

Where do banks stand with legacy transformation today? What are the market factors and changing consumer demands that make transformation increasingly crucial? Legacy transformation is not a new challenge for banks. However, as technology capability continues to advance, along with it the potential for innovation and new business models serving a digital customer base, the pressure of no longer being constrained by legacy infrastructure intensifies. Despite being the central nervous system for banks’ operations for decades serving a business purpose, legacy systems have become inadequate, and those trained to use them may lack the skills needed to meet sophisticated demands for real-time and seamless experiences. Here’s how banks can decouple their systems from each other to evolve and grow, untangle technology challenges to drive digitisation, and invest in technology and employees to ensure obstacles to rapid and gradual modernisation are removed. This impact study, produced in association with Veritran, will: Consider frameworks that prioritise initiatives based on their impact; Explore specific recommendations for each of these challenges; Propose strategies on how to integrate systems that will address data silos; Highlight clear ROI examples, efficiency gains, and enhanced customer outcomes; and Emphasise that there is no need for legacy system abandonment and modernisation can be conducted gradually without disruption.

14 January 2025 449 downloads

White Paper

UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024

In this fourth annual report, APIContext evaluated the performance of UK Open Banking APIs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The UK’s Open Banking system is arguably the most advanced in the world, having been in place since at least 2018. The time in market for this ecosystem offers lessons and best practices to other countries that are looking to implement similar API-driven financial systems; as well as banks and financial institutions that seek to differentiate through quality customer experiences. In this updated report, APIContext evaluates the performance of Open Banking APIs provided by various types of financial institutions in the UK. These include the major “CMA9” banks (the nine largest banks required by UK law to provide Open Banking services), traditional High Street banks, credit card companies, building societies (similar to credit unions in the United States), and new digital banks, often called neobanks. All the data in this report are based on real API calls, having tested the APIs in real-world conditions using the same process that consumers would go through. These calls followed the FAPI (Financial-grade API) standards, which are specifically designed for securely sharing sensitive financial data. The report includes: Key analysis of the UK's Open Banking API performance 2023 - 2024 Availability and reliability of API endpoints Latency metrics (DNS, TCP connect, SSL handshake, processing, and total time) Performance by cloud provider (AWS, IBM, Azure, and Google) Comparative analysis between different bank types (CMA9, traditional, and neobanks) Cloud provider comparison and other detailed findings Key takeaways and recommendations for various players in the ecosystem

13 January 2025 491 downloads

Impact Study

Catering to a new generation through unified card programmes

How Gen Z is changing the payments landscape, why operational costs are soaring, and how a unified card programme can help financial institutions to unlock a competitive advantage and drive growth. Globalisation continues to shape the market as money moves between banks, businesses and even countries quicker and in higher numbers than ever before. Both debit and credit cards remain vital in today’s payment experience but changing consumer demands and the surging popularity of neobanks leave traditional banks fighting for top-of-wallet status. On one hand, traditional banks are battling surging operational costs. From a functionality point of view, the world is getting smaller. Today, there is not much perceived difference to the consumer between debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards. Yet behind the scenes, many banks run each of these products in different platforms and set-ups, each racking up its own costs. Add to this mix services like personal loans/buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes and increasing regulatory demands, you have created the perfect storm: Having to bolt on a new, disparate system every time the services are extended – which costs time, money, and adds high regulatory burden. On the other hand, the consumer expectations of a new generations are shaping the market. Gen Z’s preference for digital, seamless payment methods is changing the financial landscape and traditional banks need to adapt their service offerings in order to match these new demands. This impact study, produced in association with FIS, explores: Increasing cost pressures: Why operational costs are soaring How a new generation is shaping the payments landscape Tackling change: The benefits of a unified card programme Case studies: A practical approach to change Watch the on-demand Finextra webinar with FIS - Unifying card programmes: The cost-reduction imperative

06 December 2024 251 downloads

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

31 October 2024 593 downloads

Event Report

Managing Fraud Risks with Synthetic Data

A Practical Approach for Businesses Services Industry The financial services sector is in a constant state of evolution, and so too are the challenges it faces, particularly in the realm of financial crime. This mounting issue has become a significant concern for institutions, customers and regulators alike. The key to addressing this lies in our approach to data - its quality, management, and applications. Harnessing the power of synthetic data and AI tools has become a pivotal factor in business transformation, particularly in addressing the issue of financial crime. The ability to streamline operations and enhance efficiency is a major challenge businesses face, but the introduction of synthetic data offers promising solutions. Synthetic data provides a comprehensive view of all types of crime, a feature that is crucial for global banks often grappling with segmented fraud activity. This broader perspective enhances the institutions’ capability to effectively fight financial crime. This report summarises the discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, and explores: The role of synthetic data in combatting financial crime Implications of new regulation How synthetic data enhances crime detection A practical apprach for managing fraud risk

22 October 2024 277 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, Instant, Profitable?

A Sibos Special Edition The global payments landscape is in a period of rapid transition, with technologies and regulations making a serious impact. Yet looking to the future of the payments industry, how can we ensure that it is digital, instant, and profitable? While consumer behaviours continue to evolve in tandem with this. Artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Blockchain, and even more pioneering technologies are shaking up the payments systems all in their own way. Adding to this atmosphere of flux, is an developing regulatory framework which promises to alter this situation further. Regulators are facing an uphill battle attempting to legislate on emerging technologies while keeping consumers safe, and providing the best outcome for payment service providers (PSPs). As we move towards milestones like open finance and more rapid payments, there is a chance the payment ecosystem could look quite different within the next few years. Under these growing pressures, global payments organisations will need to ensure that they are able to bend and adapt to the circumstance, or risk snapping. Never has it been more important for PSPs to collaborate with each other, and regulators, to ensure the best outcomes. This Sibos 2024 special edition report, was produced with contributions from Accenture, Deloitte, EBA CLEARING, Finastra, FIS Global, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, PPI AG, Swift, and Wise. It explores: The evolution of instant payments in 2025; The modernisation correspondent banking and cross border payments; Preparing the upcoming EU payments legislation; The key to successful digitalisation; The technology innovations reshaping the payments sector.

17 October 2024 1036 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores: Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

10 October 2024 307 downloads