2016 Payments Outlook

In payments, the term “disruption” has become a cliché; every day seems to bring developments that change the operating environment. Mercator Advisory Group’s latest research note, 2016 Payments Outlook, summarizes the 2016 Outlook notes available from each of Mercator’s seven research practices—the Debit, Credit, Prepaid, Commercial and Enterprise Payments, Emerging Technologies, Banking Channels, and Global Payments Advisory Services. The Outlooks highlight the sweep of changes Mercator anticipates for the volatile year ahead as well as the technology trends that will drive change beyond the 2016 horizon.

“Coming on the heels of 2015’s big events—Samsung/Android/Walmart/Target/Chase Pay announcements, the EMV liability shift, and awakening real-time payments to name just a few—disruption has become a fixture of the payments industry in 2016,” comments Ken Paterson, Mercator Advisory Group’s VP of Research and author of this overview Outlook for 2016. “However, it is critical not to lose sight of the countervailing forces of embedded infrastructure, customer inertia, and the law of large numbers. Forces of change play out on a well-established field in payments, and our analyst team tries to map out the most realistic outcomes.”

The 2016 Payments Outlook also introduces five macro themes that expand across Mercator Advisory Group’s services and will be key elements of the firm’s research in 2016 and beyond. 

The five macro themes are:

• Finding and Acquiring Profitable Customers: Cross-selling and Onboarding in a Multichannel World
• Managing Fraud in a Post-EMV World: CNP and Authentication Take Center Stage
• The Evolution of Loyalty Versus Steering in Payments: Merchants and Issuers Collide and Cooperate
• Financial Inclusion: Products and Tools for Profitable Relationships
• Mobile OS as a Design Focus for Building Solutions

The free 2016 Payments Outlook is the last in a series of seven Outlook notes by Mercator Advisory Group that provide insights into trends and new themes on the horizon that will have a significant impact on the payments and banking industry, consumers, and the ways companies do business in 2016 and beyond. The subjects of these Outlooks set the foundation for Mercator Advisory Group’s research agenda for the coming year and provide a framework for key points of engagement that Mercator Advisory Group will have with its clients in 2016.

The Outlooks for 2016 are presented by each of Mercator Advisory Group’s Advisory Services—Debit, Credit, Prepaid, Commercial and Enterprise Payments, Emerging Technologies, Banking Channels, and Global Payments—and can be downloaded without charge.