Financial Futures

Apps like Zelle and Venmo have made splitting happy-hour tabs with friends so much easier. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact of person-to-person payments, or “P2P.” P2P is not only changing how we move money, it’s radically transforming banking itself. 

FIS’ Norm Marraccini says that leaves only one option for banks that want to survive into the digital future: “You’ve got to get into P2P.”

In this episode of “Financial Futures,” Marracini, senior vice president for executive retail digital payments at FIS, joins us to take a closer look at the P2P payment revolution. 

We’ll discuss:

• How COVID accelerated P2P’s already-rapid growth
• Zelle’s success introducing P2P to the masses, and how it has become the dominant player in the industry
• How “B2C,” “B2B,” and the like are the next steps in P2P’s evolution
• Will the rise of P2P cause brick and mortar bank branches to vanish?

Cash is quickly disappearing as a form of payment. But what will take its place? 

Tech wizzes have given us a dizzying variety of devices and apps that make paying for things easier than lifting a finger. We’ve got smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers. Digital wallets, P2P apps like Venmo, and refrigerators that will buy more milk for us when we run out. As different as they are, most of these payment innovations are still linked to that little piece of plastic we call a credit or debit card. But just like cash, new technologies are making that physical token less and less relevant.

In this episode of “Financial Futures,” FIS’ Melissa Kopp returns to talk about what it means to be a cardholder these days, and why financial institutions and merchants need to unify the growing variety of payment experiences available today. We’ll discuss:

• How consumers are interacting with retailers and financial institutions through an ever-growing variety of digital channels. 
• What the “omnichannel” buzzword really means, and how to create a truly omnichannel experience.
• How APIs can be leveraged to design cohesive customer experiences.
• Do payment providers really need to go omnichannel?

In the age of COVID, a lot of us are feeling more squeamish about paper money and the germs that may be hitching a ride on it. All across the world, people are using way less cash. But the pandemic only accelerated a trend that was well underway, with the rise of contactless cards and digital payment apps making a cash-free lifestyle more appealing than ever.

In the debut episode of “Financial Futures,” we ask: does COVID spell the death of cash? What would a cashless society look like, and do we really want to live in one? And how can financial institutions attract a new generation of customers ready to ditch the clutter of coins and bills, while weathering uncertain times that leave others longing for the comfort of cold, hard cash?

Melissa Kopp joins us to offer her take on these questions as director of business development at FIS, a global leader in financial services technology. We talk about:

• How both consumers and merchants have embraced contactless payments during the pandemic
• The benefits and risks of a cashless society, and who it might leave behind
• What we can learn from Sweden, a trailblazing model of a (nearly) cash-free country
• How financial institutions can adapt and lead the way into the digital-payments future

Introducing Financial Futures, launching October 2020.

For more information, visit https://www.fisglobal.com