Whether you’re still crying or still dancing to “Everything is Awesome” even after the recent election, there’s one thing more to consider: the impact that President-Elect Trump is likely to have on the mobile payments market.
The good news here is that there will likely be a lot of impact. The bad news, however, is that not all the news is good.
So, the good news first. Trump’s tax plan, if it goes through as designed, will lower a lot of people’s tax bills outright. It will not only be simpler to calculate—which means your need to pay H&R Block might be removed—but it will likely also be lower.
That means more cash in pocket, and that means more potential for spending. Spending routed, at least somewhat, through mobile payment systems.
That has a beneficial effect on the overall economy, sparking more sales, which means more people are needed to make and sell the things in question and generating what’s called a “virtuous cycle,” where good things make more good things.
Plus, the payments industry has been improving security and offering more services, so we could see a general rise in the field thanks to those factors alone.
However, Trump’s planned target of remittances from the United States to Mexico may have a serious impact on the payments industry. Bar none, the US / Mexico trade is the largest for the remittances industry.
Mexico gets about $25 billion, while China comes in next at $16 billion and India third at $12 billion. Rounding out the top five is the Philippines at $10 billion and Vietnam at $7 billion. What’s more, it would have a clear impact on several firms’ operations; Western Union, for example, actually doubled its presence in Mexico, while MoneyGram partnered with Walmart to make such remittances easier to accomplish.
Granted, it’s very early to predict the impact of a Trump presidency on the mobile payments market. He’s not even technically the president for another two months, roughly. Starting to think about this sort of thing now could prove valuable in the end, because knowing what may be coming allows one to plan for it in advance, and potentially, be ready for the likely changes to come.