What shapes consumer transactions and payment technologies, and where is it going?
Any conventional wisdom about payments—how they’re made, the currencies being used, the cards presently in favor—doesn’t last long before the next wave of technology, innovation, and regulation. Javelin’s analysts conduct research at the forefront of payments, identifying the emerging trends for financial services companies and payments providers and offering insight into how they can best position themselves not just for what is current but also for what is coming.
Payments Research
Reports
Embedded Finance: What Do Merchants Want?
Software companies are fast becoming a source of financial services for small- and medium-sized businesses, and this brings up a host of questions for banks and software companies alike as they assess questions of how (and whether) to compete, h...
Instant Card-Based Payments: Meeting Customer Needs Immediately and Everywhere
Consumers and businesses increasingly expect faster and real-time payment options. They prefer to use convenient, flexible, dependable, and secure payment methods that are available digitally, 24/7/365, and accepted by all or most people and bus...
Self-Use Drives Prepaid Products
The term “gift card” carries a natural connotation of prepaid products that are purchased for the use of others. But this connotation clashes with the reality that self-use—that is, the purchase of a prepaid product for use by the buyer—is a sig...
Commercial Cross Border: This is Getting Good
Commercial cross-border transactions are a big business, and they’re only getting bigger, projected to expand at nearly an 11% compound annual growth rate through 2030. Such transactions also tend to be costly and risky, tied to a correspondent ...
Are Consumers ‘Buying’ Biometric Authentication?
Biometric authentication has substantial benefits that accrue to the quality of transactions, including reduced fraud involving payments made online. The technology that enables such authentication is mature, and widespread use of it in payments...
Disbanded Co-Brands: When Credit Card Joint Ventures Fail
The robust credit card co-brand market represents more than 300 million U.S. cards. However, the relationship requires partnership and cooperation between all parties, and successful examples of this harmony have flourished. However, friction be...
Credit Card Issuance by Small Issuers: Strategies, Risks, and Options
Community banks, credit unions, and banks of all sizes face an imperative of having a presence in payment cards. With almost 600 million credit cards in the United States and 230 million adults using them, these cards are the standard access veh...
Managing Cards as a Service
Companies that provide card-as-a-service (CaaS) offerings are flourishing under a range of descriptions. The overlaps among CaaS providers, banking-as-a-service (BaaS) providers, and payment processors can be considerable, as each acts as an int...
Shredding Inefficiency: A Blueprint for Eliminating Paper Checks
The use of paper checks in commercial payments doggedly persists, accounting for 33% of such transactions globally, with an overwhelming number of corporations still accepting checks and sending them out. It’s past time to make the switch to ful...
Eco-Focused Payment Cards: It Pays to Be Green
As financial institutions and card issuers increasingly embrace sustainable practices with their card programs, they’re also finding a way to engage their customers with innovative, recyclable materials for the physical cards and compelling opti...