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Infographic: The Digital Economy November 2016

25 November, 2016
Alice Markie
Payment System

Cheques now represent just 1.2% of all non-cash transactions as Australians show a clear preference for electronic payment methods. Over the past 10 years, cheque use has declined by nearly 73% and the rate of decline is accelerating. Simultaneously, cash…

More data, more value

If you could analyse all my payments data you’d be pretty close to feeling like you know me without us ever having met. You’d know how I get to work, the supermarket I shop at, my coffee habits, subscriptions, right…

Cloudsurfing and payments

Many in our industry are watching in fascination as the United States inches towards a real-time payments solution. There are three recent developments: the Fed’s Faster payments task force has defined effectiveness criteria for a new payments system, NACHA has received the Fed’s approval for its same day ACH rule, and most interestingly, The Clearing House – the high value clearing network for the larger banks – has announced a letter of intent with Vocalink to develop a new real-time system. Judging by the Chicago Payments Symposium hosted by the Chicago Fed last month, there is still nothing like consensus on the “right” outcome, and the US is still some years from new mainstream payments services that are “cloud ready”.

New research highlights an increasingly “banked” world

Billions of people, primarily in developing countries, have historically had neither bank accounts nor access to electronic payments. When saving and making payments, they have had to rely on cash. This is rapidly changing. According to the recently-released World Bank Global Findex, in 2014, 62 per cent of the adults worldwide had a formal account with a financial institution or mobile money service – a dramatic increase from 51 per cent in 2011. This upswing in financial inclusion has been facilitated by a growing middle class in many developing countries and easily available technology, in particular the mobile phone. However this growth has taken a different path in different regions.

Why does it take up to a day to process my internet payment?

The use of online banking websites and mobile banking apps has increased a lot in Australia. We have one of the fastest uptakes in the world of that sort of technology. One of the side effects of this is that people are now much more aware than they used to be of how quickly a payment they are expecting is going to hit their account. And that’s led to a lot of discussion and chatter about how quickly payments take place.