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Moody’s study highlights Entity Verification as critical for risk management
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Organisations face greater challenges to understand who they do business with amid rising risks and evolving regulations, according to a new Moody’s survey and interviews with senior risk and compliance professionals.

Moody’s study found that Entity Verification – a data-driven process that helps verify and authenticate the credentials of each entity a firm onboards or already conducts business with – is deemed essential to avoid regulatory fines and reputational damage. 

Businesses are exposed to an increasingly complex risk landscape, as underscored by new insights from Moody’s Grid risk database: 

·         Nearly 14% growth in the number of organisations and people added to sanctions watchlists in the last 14 months to June 2024 

·         Cyber-attacks are more prevalent: cyber-related risk events nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023 

·         Human trafficking is on the rise: Moody’s registered a 22% increase in human trafficking events from 2022 to 2023 

Firms are typically required by regulations across multiple jurisdictions to screen and report on such risks. Those that fail to comply can be liable to financial penalties and risk harming their reputation, which is why 64% of risk and compliance professionals cited regulatory compliance complexity as a key challenge. 

The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, for example, holds enterprises across the globe accountable for human rights in their supply chains, while the UK’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act makes organizations liable for failing to prevent fraud. From 2025, the scope of entities who are required to comply with the European Union’s anti-money laundering regulations will expand to include professional football clubs, crypto asset service providers, crowd funding platforms, as well as buyers and sellers of luxury goods like jewellery, jets and yachts. 

Against this backdrop, Moody’s global study found that 9 in 10 respondents rate Entity Verification as ‘essential’ or ‘important’. The value of Entity Verification is also on an upward trajectory, with 73% of businesses anticipating its importance to increase over the next two years. 

Entity Verification is predominantly used today for customer onboarding (78%), ongoing customer risk monitoring (73%) and investigations & enhanced due diligence (71%). Sales & marketing, supply chain management, crypto-currencies and gambling represent less common use cases that are quickly increasing in importance. 

However, the focus on Entity Verification is not uniform across financial and non-financial services sectors: 

Financial services:  

·         As banks seek to introduce more automation, there is a recognition of the criticality of Entity Verification as a precondition for other risk screening activities 

·         Banks cite a desire to improve customer experience and streamline onboarding 

·         The pressure to meet ever-more stringent regulations 

Non-financial services: 

·         Corporates are quick to flag supply chain complexity, and the risks from bad actors who are ever more sophisticated 

·         A heightened awareness of Entity Verification as part of a wider risk framework among unregulated, non-financial sector companies 

·         Professional Services cite the additional factor of wanting to demonstrate their Entity Verification robustness as part of their appeal to customers  

While the importance of Entity Verification is apparent to those surveyed, firms cite a myriad of data challenges, including data siloes (51%), high costs (46%), updating data in a timely manner (44%) and data inaccuracy (43%). Fewer than 1 in 10 firms described the maturity of their data governance strategy as ‘advanced’, with most (49%) at the ‘developing’ phase. Leaders in data governance are more likely to be larger firms, with a Chief Data Officer in place and priority given to this topic at board level. Of those surveyed who had a data governance strategy in place, 82% cited improved data quality and accuracy, 72% cited strengthened risk management and 70% had enhanced operational efficiency and reduced costs. 

The study also probed on the extent to which companies had achieved a ‘golden record’ – a single, accurate, and complete version of data for a specific entity – that helps decision-making and operational efficiency. However, only 1 in 10 firms claimed to have a golden record and only a small minority of respondents (14%) have fully achieved a ‘single customer view’ – a comprehensive aggregation of all the data relating to a specific customer. Firms who have fully or mostly achieved a single customer view are overwhelmingly closer to having a golden record (22%) compared to those who have partially or not achieved a golden record (1%). 

Keith Berry, General Manager, Compliance and Third-party Risk Management Solutions, at Moody’s, said: “‘Who are you doing business with?’ is a deceptively simple question that can be very complicated to answer. In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, economic and geopolitical uncertainties, stringent compliance rules, and the challenges of data management have heightened the need for robust Entity Verification practices. Our study demonstrates the growing significance of Entity Verification not only to manage financial crime and prevent fraud, but also to drive operational efficiencies and improve customer experiences.” 

Fraudulent UK banking transactions to total 38 million over next five years
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A study from Juniper Research asserts that the number of fraudulent banking and money transfer transactions in the UK will increase 111% over the next five years, from 4.2 million in 2024 to 8.8 million in 2029. 

Despite the UK being one of the most technologically developed FDP (Fraud Detection & Prevention) markets, it anticipates additional measures, such as AI-based real-time FDP, will be required to mitigate the growing threat of fraud.

The UK Fraud Detection & Prevention in the Banking Market 2024-2029 report predicts the UK’s upcoming PSR (Payment Systems Regulator) reimbursement regulation will significantly impact fintechs’ adoption of FDP solutions.

The regulation aims to reduce fast-growing APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud; the act of fraudsters tricking their victims into willingly making large bank transfers. However, increasing concerns surround the regulation’s impact on faster payments; potentially slowing them to ensure APPs are legitimate.

Therefore, AI needs to be implemented into FDP systems to enable financial institutions to quickly identify APP fraud without diminishing the value of faster payments.

However, the research also identified data sharing between stakeholders in the payments landscape as vital to maximising the value of FDP solutions, especially within faster payments where real-time fraud detection will be key. 

Report author Cara Malone explained: “The plethora of data collected throughout the payments processes will be utilised to develop several different FDP tools, ranging from behavioural biometrics to identification.”

Photo by Alex Tai on Unsplash

Research: European businesses ‘unprepared for increasing cyber attacks’
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A Cloudflare study has revealed that 64% of business leaders, including the retail and financial services sectors, expect a cybersecurity incident in the next 12 months, but only 29% feel highly prepared to defend against them

The report, called “Shielding the Future: Europe’s Cyber Threat Landscape Report” shares the latest data on how organisations are coping with rising volumes of cybersecurity incidents, their levels of preparedness, and top challenges.

These new findings reveal an ongoing concern around growing cybersecurity threats and a feeling of unpreparedness among European businesses.

The survey, which was conducted with more than 4,000 business and technology leaders across 13 European markets (Benelux, CEER, DACH, Nordics, Southern Europe, UK), found that 40% of organisations experienced a cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months. 

Of those that suffered such an event, 84% report that the frequency of these events has increased over the same period, with almost one in five (16%) suffering a cybersecurity attack every 6-11 days. Meanwhile, 62% say that attacker dwell time has also increased in the same time period. 

Looking ahead, two-thirds (66%) of respondents believe that they will see even more attacks within the next year and a significant 64% say that they expect to suffer a cybersecurity incident within the next 12 months. 

Concerningly, despite the increasing volume and frequency of these attacks, only 29% of respondents say they are highly prepared for cybersecurity incidents in the future.

Additionally, industries that had experienced fewer attacks were also among those least prepared. Just 28% of those working in healthcare and 31% of those working in education claimed to have suffered an attack in the last 12 months. For those same industries, the perceived level of preparedness for an incident in the future was low – just 18% and 19%, respectively.

The reverse is true for those in the IT & technology industry. With almost half (49%) being attacked in the last year, however, organisations in this field are seemingly on their guard. Over a third (35%) of respondents from this sector say they are highly prepared for an attack, making it the industry most confident in its ability to deal with an incident, followed by companies in financial services and retail (32% and 31% respectively).  

When looking at organisational size, the lack of preparation by smaller businesses is a particular concern, with only a quarter (25%) claiming to be highly prepared. Medium-sized and large businesses do not fare much better though, with only 27% and 32%, respectively, claiming high levels of preparedness.

For those businesses impacted by a cybersecurity breach, more than a third of respondents (39%) say that the most significant effect remains financial. More than one in five (22%) claim to have lost revenue following an incident. In addition, 23% have suffered increased insurance premiums, 22% have paid fines, and another 23% have experienced legal action. A further one in five (19%) have been forced to lay off members of the team due to the financial losses experienced in the aftermath of an incident. 

Looking at the numbers more closely, almost two-fifths (38%) of respondents say that the financial impact of the incidents they suffered cost between £788,000 and £1.576 million, while a quarter (25%) estimated the loss to be £1.576 million or more. 

A further 17% said that reputational damage was the most significant effect. Additionally, 31% put growth plans on hold in the aftermath of an incident, while over a quarter (28%) have temporarily suspended business operations. 

It’s unsurprising that financial gain was at the heart of many attacks (48%) across the European countries surveyed. However, survey respondents also believe that the threats they have experienced have a much wider range of objectives.

The majority (53%) of those impacted by an incident in the last 12 months say that the main purpose was to plant spyware. And  almost half (48%) of those surveyed say that ransomware plants were the main purpose for the attack. 

When it comes to the most commonly experienced attack vectors, these too are diverse. Phishing tops the list, with almost three in five (59%) respondents claiming to have seen this approach. That’s closely followed by web attacks (58%) and DDoS attacks (37%). Also prevalent were stolen credentials and business email compromise, with almost a third (32%) having experienced these.  

When it comes to tackling these issues, onboarding more products seems to be the go-to response. In fact, nearly half (49%) have more than 11 different products and solutions. The vast majority (72%) believe that this complexity is having a negative impact on their effectiveness, and yet two-thirds (67%) expect the number of tools they adopt to increase in the next 12 months. 

Notably, the three most pressing challenges cybersecurity decision makers and leaders face are: consolidating and simplifying cybersecurity estate (48%); modernising applications used by organisation (47%); and modernising networks operated by organisation (42%). 

Further education on Zero Trust is required for maximum impact

Respondents report three clear problems in the existing architectures they work with: applications and data stored in the public cloud; limited oversight over IT supply chains; and over-reliance on VPNs to protect applications (with each factor mentioned by 34% of respondents).

Given these problems, it is unsurprising that securing a hybrid workforce is a top priority, coming in the top three for more than a third (36%) of our respondents. 

Worryingly, for many organisations, deployment of countermeasures is a long way behind, and in some cases not yet started. Despite widespread recognition of its ability to protect hybrid or remote workers, when looking at deployment of Zero Trust network access., just 25% of respondents say this solution is fully deployed and over half (58%) say that Zero Trust adoption is still in its early stages.  

While two-fifths (44%) say they are optimistic about the ability of Zero Trust to consolidate technology upgrades, our respondents also indicated a lack of faith in their leadership teams’ knowledge of the tool. In fact, the majority (86%) believe their leadership does not fully understand it, while nearly one in five (16%) say their leadership has either partial or no real understanding. According to 42% of those surveyed, this lack of understanding is the single biggest barrier to adoption.

Despite increased budgets, funding, talent, and training remain challenges

With business leaders anticipating more cybersecurity incidents, it’s positive to see that 54% of respondents expect their IT budget for cybersecurity to increase in the next year.

A quarter (25%) of business and IT leaders expect cybersecurity to make up at least 20% of their organisations’ IT spend in the year ahead. And of those expecting a budgetary increase, two thirds (66%) anticipate a rise of more than 10%. 

For the majority, protecting their networks remains the number one investment area, with nearly 24% of the budget allocated to this pillar on average. Despite being the area where respondents see a significant lack of preparedness, devices are set to receive the second lowest allocation of budget share. 

In terms of how this budget allocation is decided, the top two determinants were the number of incidents experienced (34%) and the cost of dealing with them (20%), revealing that most organisations appear to remain reactive in their funding allocation decisions. 

Funding remains the top concern for 46% of our respondents. However, other concerns, such as a lack of talent (41%) as well as the evolving business requirements and user needs (30%) also keep business and tech leaders awake at night.  

Interestingly, despite the increasing volume of attacks, a quarter (25%) cite a lack of buy-in from leadership as a key challenge. With less than a quarter (23%) having not undertaken leadership or general employee training, it is therefore unsurprising that 21% of business and IT leaders rate their organisations’ cybersecurity culture as weak or neutral.

“Organisations across Europe are managing an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape, all while ensuring operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and uninterrupted productivity. With incidents on the rise in both volume and frequency, this balancing act becomes even more challenging, leaving leaders with a sense of diminishing control over their organisations’ technological and security frameworks,” said Andy Lockhart, Head of EMEA at Cloudflare. “This significant challenge requires innovative solutions capable of integrating diverse technological components into a cohesive and agile framework. The age of siloed legacy infrastructures is giving way to a new model of “any-to-any” cloud platforms, creating catalysts for innovation and growth. By concentrating on strategic integration any-to-any cloud platforms empower leaders to transform technological challenges into competitive advantages. Adopting this approach will help shape a future where connectivity and innovation are at the heart of business success, opening the door to unlimited possibilities,” adds Lockhart.

Photo by Kasia Derenda on Unsplash

Card payments in China to hit $20 trillion
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The Chinese card payments market is expected to grow by 3.7% to reach CNY141.1 trillion ($19.9 trillion) in 2024, supported by a constant consumer shift towards non-cash payments.

GlobalData’s Payment Cards Analytics reveals that card payments value in China reached CNY136.0 trillion ($19.2 trillion) in 2023, registering a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% during 2019-23.

Shivani Gupta, Senior Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, said: “China is the world’s largest payment card market in terms of transaction value, well ahead of developed countries such as the US. Chinese consumers are increasingly adopting payment cards, spurred by a strong banked population, government initiatives to push digital payments, rising consumer preference for electronic payments, and the expansion of payment acceptance infrastructure in the country.”

The growth of card payments has also been supported by government initiatives to push cashless payments. In April 2024, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, along with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage departments, issued notice to encourage electronic payment acceptance in the country. As part of this, government agencies are required to provide adequate acceptance payment infrastructure, enabling consumers to pay for cultural and tourism transactions digitally using debit/credit cards and digital wallets.

Gupta adds: “The central bank’s decision to open up card payment space, which was primarily dominated by China UnionPay, to international players like American Express and Mastercard will enable them to process domestic card payments thereby bringing in more competition.”

Among the card types, debit cards are preferred over credit and charge cards, accounting for 59.9% share of the overall card payment value in 2023. Debit cards are increasingly being used for payments, especially low-to-medium value transactions. This has been driven by rising consumer awareness, banks offering contactless debit cards, and the expansion of the country’s POS network.

While credit and charge cards have lower adoption and use compared to debit cards, these cards are increasingly being used for payments. The frequency of credit and charge card payments rose from 70.9 transactions per card in 2019 to 129.3 transactions in 2023. Consumers primarily use these cards to take advantage of value-added services such as reward points, installment payment facilities, and discounts offered by banks.

Gupta concludes: “The Chinese payment card market is expected to continue its upward growth trajectory, supported by government initiatives, rising consumer preference for digital payments, and improving card acceptance infrastructure. Subsequently, the card payments value is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% between 2024 and 2028 to reach CNY176.9 trillion ($25.0 trillion) in 2028.”

AI-powered malicious attacks are now a top emerging risk, says study
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Concern about artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced malicious attacks ascended to the top of the Gartner emerging risk rankings in the first quarter of 2024.

“The prospect of malicious actions enabled by AI-assisted tools is concerning risk leaders worldwide,” said Gamika Takkar, director, research in the Gartner Risk & Audit Practice. “The relative ease of use and quality of AI-assisted tools, such as voice and image generation, increase the ability to carry out malicious attacks with wide-ranging consequences.”

During the first quarter of this year, Gartner surveyed 345 senior enterprise risk executives to capture and benchmark their top 20 emerging risks and provide leaders a view of their causes and potential consequences.

Risks related to AI captured the top two rankings in the 1Q24 survey (see Table 1) with AI-enhanced malicious attacks cited as the top emerging risk and AI-assisted misinformation also causing concern. Escalating political polarization, which entered the tracker for the first time in 4Q23, dropped from the second most cited concern to third place.

Table 1: Top Five Most Commonly Cited Emerging Risks in Q1 2024
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Source: Gartner (May 2024)

One of the key drivers of AI-enabled attacks and misinformation is the rapidly expanding access to its capabilities. AI enhancement can provide malicious code, and facilitate phishing and social engineering, which enables better intrusion, increased credibility and more damaging attacks.

“Its low cost and rapid growth also expose users to the technology who have little awareness on how to recognize when AI-enabled tools are providing valid vs. false or misrepresented information,” said Takkar.

The potential impacts of AI-enhanced attacks and misinformation are far-reaching and consequential to reputation, productivity and the ability of organizations to respond. Increased breaches and disclosure requirements can erode trust in an organization and brand among clients, consumers and partners.

“The speed and quality of AI-enhanced attacks and misinformation also hinder information security teams’ ability to respond and adapt to the new security landscape, further amplifying its vulnerabilities,” said Takkar.Gartner clients can read more in 1Q24 Emerging Risk Report. Nonclients can read: 1Q24 Emerging Risk Trends.

Spain continues trends towards digitisation of payments
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The Spanish card payments market is forecast to grow by 8.9% to reach EUR402.6 billion ($435.4 billion) in 2024, supported by a constant consumer shift towards electronic payments.

GlobalData’s Payment Cards Analytics, reveals that card payment value in Spain registered a growth of 22.5% in 2022, driven by a rise in consumer spending. The value is estimated to have registered a growth of 18.1% to reach EUR369.8 billion ($399.8 billion) in 2023.

Ravi Sharma, Lead Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Spain is gradually moving towards the digitalization of its payment infrastructure, supported by a high-banked adult population, partly due to citizens’ right to a basic account, and the expansion of its point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure. The growing acceptance of payment cards by retailers and the advent of contactless technology are set to reduce the share of cash within the economy.”

Cash remains an integral part of the Spanish consumer payments landscape, particularly for lower-value transactions. However, there has been a consistent decline in cash usage, while electronic payment methods have witnessed an increase. This is supported by a well-developed payment infrastructure with over 52,000 POS terminals per one million inhabitants in Spain – which is amongst the highest compared to many of its European counterparts.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rise in contactless payments in the country, thereby contributing to growth in overall card payments. According to the Study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE) in 2022, released by the European Central Bank (ECB), contactless payments in Spain accounted for 67% of all card payments at POS, in terms of volume, in 2022. The share was 66% when it comes to transaction value.

The cap on cash transactions is also pushing the use of card payments in the country. As of 2021, it became illegal for consumers to make cash payments of more than EUR1,000 ($1,073.2) to businesses, which means all amounts above the limit will have to be paid using electronic mode.

Sharma concluded: “The Spanish card payments market, which was affected by the pandemic, returned to a growth trajectory with impressive growth in subsequent years, supported by a rise in economic activity and consumer spending. However, an uncertain economic environment and rising inflation pose challenges for faster growth. The Spanish card payments market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% between 2024 and 2028 to reach EUR515.9 billion ($557.8 billion) in 2028.”

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‘One million attacks on global financial sector in 120 days’
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BlackBerry’s latest Global Threat Intelligence Report has revealed threat actors focusing efforts on targeting high-value data held by the global financial sector, with one million attacks logged over the 120 day period.

This “death by a million cuts” is revealed to be using mainly commodity malware, which indicates a large number of independent actors targeting the industry in pursuit of financial gain. Critical infrastructure attacks, including those targeting government, financial, healthcare and communications industries, altogether accounted for 62 percent of industry-related attacks over the report period, September to December 2023. 

The BlackBerry Threat Research and Intelligence team registered a 27 percent uptick in novel malware to 3.7 new malicious samples per minute prevented by its AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, compared to 2.9 per minute in the previous reporting period. Overall, BlackBerry claims its cybersecurity solutions stopped 31 attacks every minute, a 19 percent increase on the last reporting period. 

“We’re consistently seeing increased volumes of attack in highly lucrative industries using novel malware,” said Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Threat Research and Intelligence at BlackBerry. “Novel malware typically indicates specific motivations from threat actors towards particular attack targets with intent to evade defences, which are often based on static signatures. We’ve reached a pivotal point where traditional detection methods alone are not enough to combat this increasingly complex problem. AI is already being weaponised by malicious entities, so it must equally be the dominant tool for detection and defence.” 

Highlights from the latest BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report include: 

  • 62 percent of industry-related attacks targeted critical industries: Digitization and the prospect of debilitating national infrastructure attracted notorious gangs and Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) groups who attempt to exploit security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities for varying motives. 
  • Commercial enterprises also under attack: 33 percent of all threats targeted commercial enterprises (including retail, manufacturing, automotive and professional services), with the majority (53 percent) of those deploying information-stealing (Infostealer) malware with the aim of accessing highly sensitive data.  
  • Rapid weaponization of CVEs by Threat Actors: Ransomware gangs observed taking advantage of new Zero Day vulnerabilities and mass mobilizing against potentially vulnerable targets, with zero-day exploits motivating profiteer groups.  

Based on its data analysis, the BlackBerry Threat Intelligence and Research team predicts that 2024 will bring an increase in attacks targeting critical infrastructure and other profitable segments. VPN appliances will likely remain desirable targets for nation-state-level threat actors and it is anticipated that there will be a continued increase in supply chain cyberattacks targeting hardware and software vulnerabilities. Further, APAC will likely see an increase in attacks from China and North Korea, particularly financially-motivated attacks. 

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JD Power survey highlights biggest fraud concerns for US merchants
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Small business owners in the US are optimistic about the future, with 88% of those surveyed indicating the financial state of their individual businesses is about the same or better off than a year ago, which in turn the research asserts should bode well for the prospects of merchant service providers.

According to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study, small business financial optimism is correlated with increased sales processed by merchant services providers. There are 94% of merchants that now accept debit or credit cards; 88% that accept digital wallet; and 54% that accept Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment methods.

However, when it comes to small business satisfaction with those services, scores are lowest among merchants for processing widely accepted payment types such as credit and debit card transactions and are highest for processing less widely accepted payment types like BNPL.

“We’re seeing an interesting disconnect in the merchant services marketplace whereby the most frequently processed forms of payment—credit and debit cards—generate the lowest levels of overall satisfaction among small business owners, while less common payment types such as BNPL, pay by bank and gift cards drive higher satisfaction,” said John Cabell, managing director of payments intelligence at J.D. Power. “Part of that is driven by demographics. Younger, newer business owners are more apt to accept a wide variety of payment types and have higher overall satisfaction with their merchant services providers. However, we’re also seeing some challenges across the board with debit and credit when it comes to delays in account funding, cost and fees and fraud management.”

Following are key findings of the 2024 study:

  • Credit and debit reign supreme on usage, but fail to deliver on satisfaction: Overall, 94% of small businesses accept debit or credit card payments. Most merchants have their credit card (81%) and debit card (80%) payments processed by their provider. Despite being the most processed forms of payment, overall merchant services satisfaction scores are lowest across all aspects of the customer experience among small businesses that have credit cards (692 on a 1,000-point scale) and debit cards (694) processed by their provider.
  • Satisfaction highest among businesses where BNPL is processed: Slightly more than half (54%) of small businesses accept BNPL and just 27% of merchants report processing BNPL with a profiled brand; satisfaction scores are highest (744) among small businesses that do have this payment type processed. Overall merchant services satisfaction rises as businesses process more payment options, reaching a high score of 793 among the 4% of businesses that cite six different payment types processed.
  • Gap emerges between small business innovators and traditionalists: Two distinct categories of small business owners have begun to emerge in the study dataset: innovators, who represent 47% of the study population and are younger, newer business owners who are more likely to accept a wide variety of payment types, and traditionalists, who represent 53% of the study population and are older and prefer cash, checks and in-person purchases. Overall merchant services provider satisfaction is significantly higher among innovators.
  • Cost, fraud risk and complexity emerge as top obstacles: Among small business owners who are unwilling to accept credit and debit cards, higher cost of acceptance and higher risk of fraud/theft are top reasons. Among those who are unwilling to accept BNPL, digital wallet or pay-by-bank payments, the primary reasons are difficulty of use/complicated process and too much effort versus other priorities.

Shopify ranks highest in merchant services satisfaction, with a score of 728. Paysafe (725) ranks second and Bank of America (713) ranks third.

The U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study was redesigned in 2024. It is based on responses from 5,383 small business customers of merchant services providers and measures satisfaction across six factors (in alphabetical order): advice and guidance on running your business; cost of processing payments; data security and protection; managing my account; payment processing; and quality of technology. The study was fielded from September through November 2023.

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Open Finance and GenAI set to dominate FinTech and payments landscape in 2024
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A Juniper Research whitepaper has revealed the 10 trends it believes are set to radically impact the fintech and payments landscape in 2024.

The whitepaper found that the fintech market is undergoing a rapid shift, with the rise of new technologies, such as Open Finance, generative AI and A2A (account-to-account) payments having a major impact on business models. This is combined with unprecedented competition to be ‘top of wallet’ for customers, making the market more competitive and uncertain than ever.

Top 10 Fintech & Payments Trends 2024

The trends are as follows:

1. A2A Payments to Challenge Cards in eCommerce and for Funding Wallets
2. CBDC Use Cases to Emerge in Practice
3. Generative AI in Banking to Transform Spending Insights
4. Digital Identity Adoption to Be Catalysed by Digital Wallet Integration
5. AML Tools to Increasingly Leverage AI as Alternative Payments Complicate Compliance
6. Sustainable Fintech Solutions to Emerge, as ESG Compliance Moves to Top of Agenda
7. FedNow to Fail to Match Instant Payments Success, but Value-added Services Will Flourish
8. Mobile Financial Services to Accelerate Transition to Banking Tech Services
9. Biometric In-store Payments to Surge, as Checkout Innovation Rises
10. B2B BNPL to Provide Critical Financing for SMEs

Juniper Research’s VP of Fintech Market Research, Nick Maynard, said: “The fintech and payments market is undergoing fundamental changes, with new payment methods and different business models threatening to completely uproot existing operations. Stakeholders must fundamentally reassess the viability of their offerings, and build ambitious roadmaps for future developments, or they will be left behind by more agile competitors.”

These trends were compiled by Juniper Research’s expert team of financial markets analysts; cross-referencing their detailed industry knowledge against the online data platform harvest, comprising over 2.1 million fintech market statistics.

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Online payment fraud losses to hit $91bn by 2028
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Merchant losses from online payment fraud will exceed $362 billion globally between 2023 to 2028, with losses of $91 billion alone in 2028 as new technologies such as AI begin to be felt in the market.

That’s according to a new report for ResearchAndMarkets, which analyses the repercussions of the surge in alternative payment methods, forthcoming challenges in the realm of Open Banking APIs, and an assortment of fraud types across sectors such as banking, remote digital and physical goods, and airlines.

The report says the upswing in eCommerce transactions, especially in emerging markets, is the driving force behind this burgeoning landscape. It details how merchants operating in these markets are grappling with novel threats, prominently the heightened utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) for perpetrating fraudulent activities.

Online payment fraud encompasses a spectrum of deceptive or illicit online transactions orchestrated by cybercriminals employing diverse fraudulent techniques like phishing, business email compromise, or account takeover.

One of the report’s conclusions is that eCommerce payment providers should extend dashboards and data visualisation tools to cater to smaller SME customers. It asserts that SMEs currently lack access to robust customer analytics, and this data holds the potential to illuminate consumer purchasing patterns and furnish insights into payment method preferences and fraud trends.

Hence, by offering supplementary services to SMEs, eCommerce payment providers can distinguish their offerings in an increasingly cutthroat and commoditised marketplace.

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