Payment Technology Innovations in 2019

Technology drives progress constantly, and this year is no different. New innovations are coming, such as cloud-based subscription platforms and blockchain digital identities, and with them, new benefits and new ways for payment.

One way of increasing your business success and its sales is to offer different payment options. Not only are you creating multiple choices for your clients to choose from, but you’ll be also capturing every sale possible.

Each year comes with its own innovations, and in this article, we help you sift through them, decide which you can utilize in your business to reap maximum benefits and drive your company to success.

Blockchain-based digital privacy and identity

As big data breaches continue to rise in this interconnected global village we live in, innovative technologies that protect privacy and verify identity better will lead the way. Blockchain-based technologies will fit this role perfectly since the main purpose is about providing resilient, incorruptible (but encrypted) recordkeeping that’s easily verifiable by anyone.

This technology can also be utilized for secure online and in-person shopping. Gone will be the days of purchase histories being stored and shared to big companies such as Google or Cambridge Analytica. Blockchain-based technologies are about restricting data collection and sharing it to only those enterprises that you, as a customer, give privilege to.

With the advent of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, and other similar online data privacy legal acts, blockchain-based technologies will be the new kings of the hill in today’s business world. And this change will flow from top to bottom – as people won’t demand such changes, but companies will.

Direct Debit Systems

Direct debit systems are cloud-based subscription platforms that allow the simultaneous management of recurring direct debit payments across multiple websites, different currencies and multiple payment methods. They can be used as standalone platforms or can be easily integrated into existing business software.

Such innovative direct debit solutions offer a simple way to automate a business’s recurring direct debit billing – in other words, an ability to automatically collect recurring consumer payments and to also recover lost revenue from outstanding and failed payments. Direct debit services can be set up with a flexible payment plan with numerous payment options including bank direct debit and credit cards. The entire process becomes streamlined, enabling the saving of time and improving cash flow.

Cloud-based subscription platforms also offer access to financial reporting and customer trend analytics that are automated and structured to help consistently with decision-making in the company. You’ll want to look for providers that areaccredited with PCI Compliance – the strongest payment security available – where tokenization solutions, stringent processes, and a payment vault ensure that all payments, billings, and card handling are met with the highest level of data security.

Biometric payment smart cards

With this technology, the innovation will be shifted in the other way around, from the bottom to the top of the value chain. Hidden from sight, a group of disruptive tech firms is busy with creating the next innovation wave to disrupt the industry and transform the physical cards completely – Biometric payment smart cards. Not only will they have an added layer of protection, but could also break the barriers of consumers to bolster the popularity of the contactless cards.

The highly unique nature of biometrics, and especially of the fingerprint, make them exceptionally secure and hence a perfect technology to layer on additional security features. This applies to end markets, especially to payments, where a multi-factor authentication is a must.

Unfortunately, fingerprint sensor cards were a challenge up until now. Plastic cards are exceedingly slim, lightweight and not active in nature, with a nonexistent power source. This is where innovative fingerprint recognition processes jump to help, as they can be attached to any payment card used in the world.

This “off-chip” fingerprint technology will enable card manufacturers to easily add a very thin fingerprint sensor to their cards. The costs of it will be minimal, hence the technology will be deployed at low costs and be accessible to all. This already familiar biometric authentication will come while no consumer habits will need to change.

Biometric payment smart cards will also ease the payment process for the individuals that face issues with health limitations, mental handicaps or illiteracy and enable them to once again enjoy the shopping experience without fears like forgetting the PIN or giving a signature.

These new payment technology innovations will interact and create novel changes in the markets this year, driven mostly by the need to restore sanity to the cost-benefit calculations around compliance. Regulatory decisions will shape those technologies in the following months, as institutions develop effective use of these new technologies.

There are other innovations we didn’t have time to mention, such as mobile payments that will authorize access to payment accounts and invisible POS that will combine mobile apps, alternative payments and instant payments and accordingly shift payment volume from card swipes, dips or taps.