Dear Subscriber,

As we near the end of January, two big trends for the year are starting stepping up a gear. First, contactless technology is in line for a huge 2016 as it now accounts for a quarter of all pay-as-you-go TfL transactions and will soon be a staple payment method in London’s iconic Black Cabs. There are also frameworks being planned that will see increased adoption of the technology across the whole country. The other big trend is the concerted efforts made by banks to go digital. Lloyds has become the latest bank to jump on this by launching its own Digital Banking Hub. Elsewhere, Global Risk Technologies’ co-founder and CIO, Monica Eaton-Cardone, talks about Visa and MasterCard making a huge effort to add value in order to fight off younger competition.

Over one million contactless journeys were made every single day during the Christmas period on Visa contactless cards alone, according to Visa Europe. In total, contactless now represents 25 per cent of all pay-as-you-go transactions on TfL and with Black Cabs soon adopting the technology also, that number is going to rise.

Monica Eaton-Cardone, Co-Founder and CIO of risk mitigation experts Global Risk Technologies, looks at developments made by payment giants MasterCard and Visa to help provide added value in the face of competition from newer competitors.

In 2014, 16.5 billion card payments were made in e-commerce totalling $2.1 trillion and that figure will grow up to $5 trillion in the next four years, according to research firm RBR.

The final few months of 2015 hammered home the idea that digital banking was the future, and actually made it feel like final nails were being hammered into the coffin of high street branches. This is set to become one of the big trends of 2016 as Lloyds has signaled its intent to focus heavily on digital channels by launching a new Digital Banking Hub.

Despite being several months into US life post liability shift, it seems that the old fashioned payment method of cash is still proving to be the most popular amongst adult Americans, according to Cardtronics, the largest US non-bank ATM operator.