(Finance) – “We see a super-evolving market, both in Italy and abroad, and we are becoming increasingly digital. Probably what we have seen in the last 5 years is more than what has happened in the last 50 years and for the future we certainly expect an acceleration of change”. He told Finance Luca Gagliardi, Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics Italyon the occasion of the ninth edition of the Payments Fair.
“We see five trends – said the expert – The first is certainly therise of new payment methods: There are more and more options for paying and receiving money. We see greater involvement of governments and institutions in the payments ecosystem. Let’s also see the role of the consumer change, from buyer to increasingly becoming a sellerand with the rise of social platforms, consumer demand will also change: not only to pay with a tap or a click, but also to be able to receive money and get paid. More or less 50% of Italians have tried to sell something online, 14% do it continuously”.
“The fourth trend, perhaps the most complicated, is the fact that it is increasingly easier and increasingly difficult at the same time truly recognize who your customers are and the theme of digital identity – he continued – And finally, the generative AI and its impact on commerce, which will make the purchasing experience increasingly personal and relevant.”
On digital payments, “Italy is making enormous progress. We have been accelerating a lot since the pandemic, last year we grew more than the global average. From our annual observatory, we see that Italians favorably perceive the use of technologies that simplify payment experiences; we see half of Italians who are already sophisticated users of payment methods and one in three even tell us that they are willing not to complete a transaction if they cannot pay with a digital payment method”.
“The challenge for the next few years will certainly be that of combine the most advanced needs of the most sophisticated users with the demand for simple and safe experiences of those who approach payment methods with more caution”, argued Gagliardi.
Regarding Visa’s products, “we believe that the next generation of payment instruments will increasingly decouple the moment of the transaction from the financing instrument underlying – credit, debit or prepaid – and for this reason we have launched Visa Flexible Credential, a single credential to be able to pay today, to pay in the future, to pay in installments, to also pay with loyalty points. We have already launched it in some markets, in Japan for example which is a market although far from us but very similar in terms of consumption styles, we have reached 3 million credentials in just 18 months”.
Looking a little more at technology instead,” we announced Visa account-to-accountthe solution to extend the entire Visa infrastructure, its rules, its brand and its protections from card payments to account payments – said Gagliardi – It is an open operating system, made up of five components: clear rules , consumer protection, transaction standards, specific APIs and above all a centralized platform for real-time dispute management and fraud monitoring.”
“And finally we also looked at the throwing experience Click to Paythe solution to be able to pay online without the need to enter card details”, he concluded.