Technology has been a key player in the gamut of the payment world for the last few decades. The evolutionary mechanism has duly reshaped the payment industry from time- to- time. Following the first Industrial Revolution that brought about a major transformation in economies worldwide, the payment scenario equally underwent the transition cycle. It’s for the last fifty years or so that the need for a more convenient, secure, regulated mode of monetary transactions catapulted a significant shift in the manner we pay for goods & services now.

From cash payment to check payment, then to plastic cards like debit/credit card payments, the payment industry has seen it all. A solo swipe method did the trick! It’s indeed interesting to find out how technology has impacted payments and finally arrived at the present stage of digital payments. Let’s discuss it!

• EMV Technology

It is the power of Smart Card technology that has challenged a rather precarious counterfeit fraud leading to an alarming situation in the payment domain globally. EMV – Europay, MasterCard, Visa – the names of original creators of the very technology stand for the abbreviation, has come as a big solace to us.

Also known as the Chip Card or IC Card, its data are stored on the IC chips (Integrated Circuits) .The transaction is done by physically inserting a card onto a reader or by just tapping over a distance(contactless) using a Near-FieldCommunication Technology.It is the authentication method that categorizes cards into a Chip &Pin card or Chip &Signature Card.

• Mobile Point of Sale (MPOS)

Mobile POSis the technology that facilitates a flexible payment process in areas like retail, hotel, parking lots, etc.For instance, in a departmental store, customers don’t need to stand in a queue at billing counters to pay bills.Mobile POS enables sales-staff to receive payment from customers just from any location they are present inside the store. Similarly, a hotel staff can check you in or check you out ata lobby itself (or any convenient point).No need to do the formality in the usual front desk corner of hotel.MPOSis widely being used across industries not only in hotel or retail but SMBs and even the bigger enterprises.

• Mobile Wallets

The arrival of digital technology has smoothened the process of payment methods viz., Mobile Wallet is the e-version of a Real Wallet in physical form. Under the technology, consumers use mobile phones to pay for goods & services instead of hard cash, swiping/inserting credit cards or debit cards. Take for instance, Google Pay, Apple Pay, where the entire payment card information is stored on a mobile phone.

• Peer-To-Peer Payments

P2P Money transfer is the electronic transfer of money done by one person to another through an intermediary in the form of a Peer-to-Peer payment application. Paypal, ApplePAyCash, Venmo, Zelle are a few examples of the P2P applications.It is the process of transferring funds between two people through their respective personal bank accounts or credit cards using an online medium or app.In short, it is an effortless money transfer process with a  mere few taps! So, next time when you go outing with family or friends, don’t carry cash but a smart digital payment app on your mobile.

• AI based Voice Payments

Has it not been a common scenario by now- “Alexa, pay my water bill,”a scene you can connect to so often! After mobile shopping, you can now resort to your Android apps that can do you favor towards paying bills through an integrated system of Voice Assistant. This is termed as an AI technology backed Smart Speaker! You speak, and the AI obeys to your command! Many renowned names rule the picture – Amazon, Apple, and Google. Not only at the present but Smart Speaker has a bright future with a Business Insider report suggesting its usage to grow up to 77.9 million users by 2022!

• Biometric Authentication

You can consider Biometric Authentication as a significant addition to various digital modes that the payment industry has witnessed so far. It is a verification system incorporating measurable physical attributes like your handprints, fingerprints, your irises, and even voice. These attributes are unique from person to person. Biometric technology does scanning and then verifying the given attributes to authenticate a user to a particular service. It gives ample scope of combating security threats in the entire system!

• Internet-of-Payments

  A disruptive technology like the Internet- of- Things (IoT) has introduced Internet-of-Payment (IOP) that enables financial transactions over IoT devices like wearable gadgets, appliances, and automobiles. MASTERCARD, VISA are the pioneers in this segment that are helping financial institutions with the seamless method of card payments over connected devices.

How would you rate the technologies that let you pay with just a wave of the hand (FitBit), or some In-Car APPfor seamless payments(HONDA or GM cars), shopping groceries using your Samsung Refrigerators? Thus, the Payment Industry has reached to a point where digital payments are the core of businesses across industries.

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Now, the mass adoption of smartphones and tablets has set the stage for a new move — away from fixed-point, card- and cash-based transactions and toward those completed on mobile. The old dream of the “digital wallet” is coming true in a very particular mobile-led fashion.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence,  we explain the main types of mobile payments, analyze the state of the mobile payments race, examine the matchup between card readers and near-field communications (NFC), look at how traditional banks, credit card companies, and card processors are responding to the mobile payments threat, and detail who is furthest along in developing the all-in-one solution for merchants and consumers.

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Here are 5 data points that help underscore the explosion:

• $640 million: eMarketer has estimated mobile payments as adding up to $640 million in transaction volume in the U.S., up from $170 million in 2011. However, this figure does not include swipes on mobile credit card readers like Square and PayPal Here, only consumer-side mobile payments in-store.
• $10 billion: Card readers are building real scale. Square’s mobile payments volume rose to $10 billion in 2012, up from $2 billion in 2011. Starbucks is switching its credit and debit card processing to Square, and as of January 2013 accepts the “Square Wallet” app at 7,000 locations. 
• $14 billion: PayPal’s mobile payments volume. Though much of that volume was from PayPal-enabled mobile commerce, and not in-store payments, that’s still evidence of mobile catching on as a transactional platform.
• 7.9 million: As of year-end 2012, only 7.9 million U.S. consumers (less than 10 percent of the total) had adopted a consumer-facing NFC-compatible system like “Google Wallet,” or apps that use QR codes or other methods to generate a payment. Starbucks reports that 10% of its U.S. transactions are already powered by smartphones, with consumers holding their phones up for codes to be scanned. Starbucks’s success shows that mobile payments can go mainstream.
• $3.95 trillion: With more than $3.95 trillion of non-cash transaction volume recorded in the U.S. alone in 2011, the stakes are high in this space.