The Banking Lab highlights the role of payment solutions in peoples’ futures

Last Thursday, 28 September, the Spanish Banking and Finance Institute held a new Banking Lab session to analyse the development of payment solutions as an innovative response to the demands of society. The speakers focused on the following issues:

• Payment solutions, such as digital wallets, address specific customer needs. The difference between them and payment instruments, such as credit cards or bank accounts, is that the latter are the “rails” on which transactions “travel”.
• More than 9,000 million card transactions, and around 2,500 million operations in the general payment system, are processed each year in Spain.
• The lack of an efficient and competitive payment system could jeopardise the economy and economic development.
• Thanks to Bizum, Spanish banking is at the forefront of payment solutions today. This solution is the result of innovation and cooperation between Spanish banks.
• The future lies in promoting the interoperability of successful payment solutions or infrastructures, to make them accessible to intermediaries and customers across Europe.
• Within 5 years, there will be more players, competition and collaboration. Mobile devices will be at the core of the payment lifecycle.

The session was chaired by Pilar Clavería, Payments Advisor of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), with the participation of Ana Puente, Deputy Director General of Sustainable and Digital Finance of the Public Treasury, Ángel Nigorra, CEO of Bizum, and Anna Puigoriol, Director of Payment Services at Banco Sabadell.