The future of payments

Fascinating conversation covering a number of the big topics in the payments industry today. David mentions that a lot of the innovation in payments at the moment is about accessing and monetising data about the underlying transactions. Does anyone have some good examples of what he's referring to there?

MCX in the US: the whole business case for CurrentC is predicated on making more use of the SKU level data. 

Any systems that can harness and monetise the underlying data about transactions will have struck gold. The simple fact is that the data exchanged for the purpose of the payment is usually constrained by the format, which prohibits the transfer of data with the payment. Take loyalty schemes, there is  a second card transaction there, where the loyalty card grabs the transaction data, while the POS terminal carries only the necessary card and value data thorugh the system.  More data flowing through with the payment would be ideal. The rapid innovations made in Singapore following the launch of FAST is an example of how a format can facilitate innovation. It uses ISO20022 and carries more reference data than a card transaction can in ISO8583. I agree that plastic is mature and that the only way to move forward would be a format change, because any digitisation of cards, fails to address the underlying limitations of the system.  There are very many shiny and interesting innovations in the card world but they are, alas, mostly 'sticky tape'. 

I agree, fascinating conversation indeed. To Finextra Members query, there is an important initiative on the cards in the UK, to create a richer data capability and allow more than the current 18 character limit. Ping me if you need more information on this.