KBW Runs Down the Hits From Money 20/20 in Mobile Payments & Beyond

It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the minutiae of a major trade show, so a more general look after all the events have passed can be useful. That’s just what the analysts at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods (KBW) did, and they passed word our way about what they spotted out at this year’s Money 20/20.

First, the Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) concept may be less of an eye-catcher for retailers than some might have thought. There are a lot of sticking points, particularly owing to a lack of clarity in things like checkout, routing, and incentives. The networks are aware of problems, but solutions are still forthcoming, eventually.

Second, Real Time Payments (RTP) may be much more of an eye-catcher than expected. Though adoption won’t be all at once—most are projecting stair-steps rather than hockey sticks—there are enough merchants interested that the others will likely follow suit for fear or losing customers.

Third, Zelle is still on a tear and will stay there for the foreseeable future. We’ve seen enough of this to recognize the truth; not only is it pulling millennials, it’s also getting the attention of older generations as well.

Fourth, India is set to be one of the biggest bright spots in all of mobile payments. Volumes and transactions are up and development continues apace. Though there are some potential issues thanks to growing quantities of competitors, that many competitors implies a hefty market to split among them all.

Much of this, granted, we already had a handle on. India’s growth has been clear from watching the news over the last couple of months, as has the prominence of Zelle. Some of this, however, is comparatively new, and what it all adds up to is that the mobile payments and ecommerce markets are likely to be huge going forward. There are more use cases cropping up for more technologies and more businesses are eager to put these tools to work.

Sure, we may not have access to everything we’d like when we’d like it—mobile checkout and drone food delivery are at the top of my list—but the Money 20/20 show made it pretty clear that we’re going to see a lot more action in even the short term.