Constructing the future of payments

Around the world payment infrastructures are undergoing fundamental change, from implementations of real-time retail payment systems to modernisations of established real-time gross settlement systems, as well as the opening up of systems to new entrants.

The Banker Leadership Series is sponsored by SWIFT but independently edited.

In discussion: 

• Embracing infrastructural change: How the financial industry is working together to construct the future of payments, the changes in payments architecture happening in the UK and globally, and what they mean for banks and their customers. Changes include: real-time retail payments, real-time gross settlement systems renewal, new entrants and SWIFT gpi. 
• Enabling a digital economy: The new real-time payments infrastructure is a critical enabler of the digital economy. The chapter looks at the emergence of new connections, partnerships and business models, and how banks and other payment providers can build on top of the new payments infrastructure, as well as whether emerging technologies, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain, have a role to play in the future. Overlay services, such as Request to Pay, are already under development.
• Leveraging standardisation: The importance of standardisation, harmonisation and interoperability of new payment systems and the benefits of ISO 20022, such as enriched and structured data sets, which in turn will allow a smarter interpretation and application of data intelligence in fraud or predicting customer behaviour.   

• Resilience by design: Best practices around ensuring a secure and resilient payments ecosystem. The industry needs to move to the future in a way that is seamless and secure, while completely in the background so that consumers can feel confident that they can rely on the systems every day. Security, safety and reliability must be baked into the design so that innovation can flourish.

• Empowering innovation: Encouraging more innovation in the payments industry to enable new business models and better customer experience, while driving down operating costs, will make payments easier and more efficient. Opening up the infrastructure to non-bank payment service providers and the possibility of central bank digital currencies ensures that the future of payments will look very different from today.  

In conversation with

• Victoria Cleland, executive director for banking, payments and innovation, Bank of England
• Simon Eacott, head of payments innovation and business development, NatWest
• Paul Horlock, CEO, Pay.UK
• Marco Hughes, head of core payments, global liquidity and cash management, HSBC 
• Vikesh Patel, head of UK and Ireland, SWIFT
• Andrew Smith, chief technology officer, ClearBank and RTGS.global