Money20/20 Amsterdam: Key Topics and Takeaways Shaping the Future of Payments

The annual Money20/20 conference held in 2024 in Amsterdam once again served as a vibrant epicenter for innovation and discourse within the global fintech and payments industry. As one of the most anticipated events on the payments calendar, Money20/20 brought together leading minds, emerging startups, and incumbent banks to explore the future of money and payments marked by insightful keynotes, panel discussions, and product showcases.

This ABI Insight delves into the key takeaways from Money20/20, highlighting emerging themes and strategic insights that will influence the payments market through 2024 and beyond.

The primary discussions held by ABI Research revolved around the future of payments, with the continued growth of instant payments bringing convenience and financial inclusion to underbanked populations, alongside how the physical card is best equipped to evolve as the payments and banking market becomes increasingly digitized:

• Instant Payments: A key critical topic at this year’s event was the rise in instant payments. Instant payments spanning ACH, digital wallets, crypto, and other forms of currency are becoming the new differentiator as they attempt to meet consumer demand for convenience and are fast-tracked through recent regulations like ISO 20022. Instant payments have already seen significant growth in emerging economic areas and countries such as Brazil and India, driving seamless transactions between users, businesses, and banks, and are expected to grow strongly over the next few years.
• Hyper-Personalization: There was a considerable amount of discussion around how data can be leveraged to anticipate customer habits and behavior, and using hyper-personalized solutions to meet these needs. The consensus from the industry is that the customer must feel as though they are the bank’s only customer and experience tailored solutions to meet their requirements for convenience and efficiency. The end result is providing the customer with a personalized and tailored experience to ensure retention and reinforce the bank’s brand to potential new customer pools to ensure continued user base growth into the future.
• Biometric Cards: Biometric payment cards, in the eyes of many, have struggled to reach the level of issuance that many were expecting to see, with 1 million issued in 2024 cited as a key industry goal for the market for biometric payment cards to establish a foundation from which to grow. Some believe this will be met, while others have become less optimistic. The biometric access control card market is well positioned to grow, with industry expectation that this market may soon outpace the biometric payment card market over the next few years. This is not to suggest that the biometric payment card market will not find success, with market inhibitors relating to the enrolment solution being tackled swiftly, and Average Selling Prices (ASPs) still gradually declining, signaling potential for wide issuance in the future.
• Dynamic Card Verification Value (DCVV) Payment Cards: The time of the battery-powered DCVV card is all but over, with the industry turning to the potential of a passive solution, drawing power from the Point of Sale (POS) terminal. At Money20/20, the most compelling solution in this space was provided by Ellipse, with its EVC All-In-One module becoming the next natural evolution of the DCVV market. With DCVV struggling greatly for traction in its older battery form, the solution by Ellipse, while still in its early days, will be the optimal choice going forward. Projects are still being announced and the market still requires education around the potential advantages, but the solution is promising from the outset.
• Sustainability: Sustainability is becoming increasingly discussed as a subsection of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals as a wider topic. Discussions are moving from only concerning the card material to also include card reclaiming and recycling programs, as well as documentation that cards are issued with. There was a shift in approach to card substrates, where previously recycled Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) was identified as the optimal material to replace virgin plastic, now rPVC is not being considered a long-term solution to the problem as still retains its toxicity. The industry is working to develop new materials to replace rPVC, with announcements expected before the end of 2024. Social responsibility goals (as part of a wider ESG strategy) are also being achieved through catering card solutions for underserved populations, including sight-impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing populations through voice cards, braille and tactile cards, and Light-Emitting Diode (LED) cards.
• Role of the Physical: There was a lot of talk around the increasing digitization driven by neo and challenger banks and how the role of the physical card remains relevant. Despite a small number of banks attempting to go digital-only (primarily located in the Latin American region), this has been as successful as envisioned, and the majority have since migrated back to include a physical card as part of their portfolio. The message is clear that customers still desire the physical card, so the discussion has shifted around how to support the physical with the digital. Solutions include personalized rewards and offers, digital card management through apps and platforms, and customization options to allow the customer to design their own personalized physical card.

It is clear that the physical card still retains its relevancy in a market moving toward digitization. Given that neobank customers still overwhelmingly request a physical card alongside the digital counterpart, smart card vendors are continually innovating to create toolboxes to cater for as wide a range of use cases as possible. With continued innovation in spaces such as DCVV and sustainable and biometric payment cards, the appetite for compelling physical card solutions is still very much apparent and ABI Research does not anticipate any impact on the physical card market for many years to come.

For biometric cards, continuing developments are expanding use cases and opening up the possibility to be incorporated by Tier Two smart card vendors and their respective portfolios, with new markets such as access control closely following the biometric card opportunity and pilots issuing at Richmond Airport and BNP Paribas. Similarly with the sustainable card, many pain points have had to be solved, including recycling and disposal strategies, as end-of-life cards must be reclaimed to be disposed of sustainably. The physical card has seen and continues to see continued significant levels of investment, which ABI Research expects to continue through the next few years.

This is primarily as consumers still demonstrate an overwhelming tendency to gravitate toward physical experiences, as it provides a tangible and branded anchor of trust. The physical card will continue to grow, supported by an increasingly digitized customer journey for convenience and control, including the card ordering process, unlocking or changing Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), or customizing account or card preferences such as spending limits.

Overall, the discussions at Money20/20, as well as those held by ABI Research, underscored pivotal advancements and ongoing trends in the payments landscape, emphasizing the transformation driven by technological innovation and consumer demand that will shape the future of payments and banking.