A Coming Mobile Payments Implosion Threatens Issuer Wallets

An inflection point is fast approaching in mobile payments. An explosion of payment options has been ignited by the market’s rapid growth to $180 billion — tripling in only three years. Today, dozens of providers have already introduced mobile wallets, including major technology providers, merchants, financial institutions, and payment networks. Javelin expects users will have hundreds of new wallet providers to choose from by 2018, as the development barriers continue to dip due to more tools being offered such as those from Visa and Mastercard. However, from 2019 to 2021, Javelin expects the explosion will give way to an implosion, as the number of payment providers contracts.