VR, vertical cards and crypto regulation lead financial trends in 2022.
With January here, TruCash looks ahead to another exciting year in financial trends:
Institutions adopt crypto: Regulation for all!
The Wild West of online crypto will meet modern banking in the village square at High Noon in 2022. Despite cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, originally promoting a decentralized value proposition to investors, crypto firms will find necessity in (gentle) regulations of their industry. This could bring in everyday (read: institutional) investors who don’t currently own crypto, are uneducated on crypto or remain wary of New Age currencies.
According to a PYMNTS survey, 73% of financial institutions currently offering digital currencies plan to offer more. Further, Visa found that 40% of crypto owners surveyed would switch their primary bank for one offering crypto services.
Crypto firms lobbying for minimal government oversight in the crypto space are banking on widespread acceptance among the general public. Banks with national reputations in Mexico, Germany and Switzerland are too. How will customers see the move? Time will tell.
Vertical Card design outshines its horizontal predecessor
First, let’s thank the late Forrest Perry for revolutionizing finance with his design for a magnetic swipe card in 1960. Now, we can acknowledge that swipe cards are out. This is seen by fewer people than ever swiping cards at in-store merchants, preferring to tap with their chip or spend online. In an interview with CBC, Absa bank executive Cowyk Fox explains, “When you hand over your card to a cashier, tap it to make contactless payments or dip it into a point-of-sale machine, you’re likely holding it on the short end, vertically.”
Super-apps battle for customer attention
Tech players around the world are battling to be the premier financial super app provider. The financial sector’s growing service disruptors (like TruCash) see the value in a single location for products and services. From Rappi in Brazil to Google in the US to the super-app pioneer WeChat in China, the global fintech space is crowded with companies seeking customers’ full attention.
For example, rather than booking a flight through one app and renting a car through another, wouldn’t it be easier to have both services in one? A recent PYMNTS study shows Americans are ready.
VR disrupts traditional customer experiences
The last few years saw tremendous growth in Virtual Reality’s relationship to traditional finance. This includes Bank of America’s employee training, BNP Paribas’ real estate tool The POD, the world’s first VR payment experience from Payscout and Fidelity Investments’ VR agent named Cora. Further, the advancement of AI learning will allow companies to more quickly develop dynamic spaces for users.
Check out this video from Glimpse Group to learn how VR will change the financial trading experience:
Cash continues its steady decline
This classic currency mode completes our financial trends in 2022. Unless you sell illegal drugs, cash will be less present in your life this year. The COVID-19 pandemic drove online traffic and in-store merchants sought *tap* payments rather than cash. Today, consumers who can replace cash with cards will continue this trend. This includes 42% of Canadians who say the pandemic changed their payments preferences for the long-term.
