NEW RESEARCH: Payments Bulletin: June 2015

In the rapidly changing and fragmented market that the Payments business has become, there is a constant flow of new information and a veritable flood of innovative products and services from an increasingly diverse list of companies. To provide subscribers to FinancialServicesViews with the best service in this dynamic sector, we have decided to launch Payments Bulletin, a regular series of updates providing insight into important aspects of the market and their implications for the suppliers of Software and IT Services. This should enable us to update our subscribers on recent company visits and announcements, comment on industry developments and put forward ideas or opinions to stimulate debate.

In this issue, we look at two aspects of regulation, consistently identified as a key driver of strategy and of investment in technology. As the payments industry stretches across geographical boundaries and is overseen by many different authorities, it has been slow to change and been a drag on the development of innovative ideas and the entry of new competition. The move to create a new UK Regulator and the drive to introduce a revised Payment Service Directive across Europe are evidence of a desire for faster change within the sector, to which payments operators and their suppliers must respond. As the market evolves, this is creating a host of new business models, and in this issue we consider the impact of the move to Faster Payments and the value of understanding end customers.

Finally, as this is the first issue of what we intend to be a regular series, we ask the question, Why is Payments important anyway—and suggest that this subsector is a vital and significant component to the sector as a whole and to the financial performance of many software and IT Services suppliers.

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