PYMNTS Money Mobility April 2022
PYMNTS Money Mobility April 2022
TRACKER®
APRIL 2022
PAGE 06 PAGE 12
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Read the previous edition MONEY MOBILITY facing FinTechs and neobanks in managing
the money-in side of the money mobility
equation
accounts, whether traditional or digital-first
TRACKER®
LETTER
D
igital banking tools have become an integral part of consumers’ lives, from the This gap in comfort levels may reflect consumers’ relative familiarity with credit cards
39% of consumers who rely on mobile budgeting apps to track their finances versus newer products such as BNPL, but there seems to be no accounting for some
to the 35% who say that mobile check deposit is their primary banking app’s preferences. Despite their generally higher level of technology engagement, for exam-
most valuable feature. Digital channels have also become popular as a means ple, consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 had significantly higher preferences for
of opening and funding new accounts, with 62% of consumers in a 2021 survey saying opening new accounts in legacy, nondigital channels than consumers 65 and older. This
they would be willing to open a new checking or deposit account digitally. finding suggests that financial literacy may outweigh overall digital savviness in deter-
mining one’s comfort with digital banking channels, leaving it up to financial institutions
Preferences for account opening and funding vary widely, however, highlighting the impor-
(FIs) to help educate younger consumers in using these tools.
tance of flexibility on the “money-in” side of the money mobility equation. A consumer’s
willingness to use a digital-only channel when creating that new account depends on FinTechs and neobanks seeking to offer consumers the payment options they want when
several factors, including the nature of the account they are opening. While 71% of con- moving money into different accounts will face a daunting task. While it may be tempting
sumers said they would be willing to open a new credit card account digitally and 64% for tech-savvy organizations to try to achieve it all in-house, it may be too large a job for
said the same of a new cell phone billing account, just 23% of consumers expressed any entity to take on alone. Partnerships will be essential for banks and other enterprises
comfort in opening a buy now, pay later (BNPL) account via digital rails. to provide consumers with the full range of money mobility they need.
Feature Story
In A Non-Instant World
To power instant payments across bor-
arate from any added fees, rather than
ders, Wise holds its own accounts in each
rolling the fees into the exchange rate as
country where it operates, sometimes
some competitors do, she said.
with partner financial institutions (FIs).
As the company’s scope has expanded
“Up to 40% of our payments are actu-
beyond money transfers between the
ally instant,” Kean said. “So, if you send
United Kingdom and Europe, so have its
money from the U.K. to Australia, or from
challenges. Wise now covers more than
the U.S. to Europe, often it’s instant.”
50 different currencies and facilitates
exchanges between a host of coun- When a Wise customer initiates a money
tries. That scope, combined with Wise’s transfer from their account, the actual
approach to accelerating cross-border transfer goes into a Wise company
money transfers, means the company account in the same country where the
has to navigate various financial struc- transfer originates. Based on its own risk
tures and gives it a unique perspective assessment process, Wise then releases
on the current state of money mobility money from an account in the country
on a global scale. where the transfer is being received.
Wise does not have to wait for the funds
to cross borders as a result and can sig-
nificantly speed up money transfers.
countries, she explained. Some transfers may also be slowed payment schemes, and others are still in working with risk management policies
based on the risk profile of the customer making the transfer development, Wise applies a risk assess- that are not taking advantage of the lat-
or the entity receiving funds, but even that often comes back to ment model common among FinTechs for est technology, an area in which Wise has
how quickly that country’s financial system permits money to be speeding up transfers. invested significant effort.
received into Wise’s domestic account. “At the end of the day, the clearing sys- “We want our customers to not have their
tem has that lag of up to three days,” payments stopped, or we don’t want to
Kean said. “But there are ways of assess- make them wait too long to be verified or
NAVIGATING REGULATIONS AS A FINTECH ing whether you think someone is going onboarded,” Kean said. “At the same time,
As with many FinTechs, Wise is building out the services associ- to abuse the system or not, and you can we’ve got to build in a way where we do
ated with customer accounts, enabling them to hold, spend, send therefore make some of those payments the right checks and don’t let bad actors
and receive funds associated with their Wise accounts in a man- move a bit quicker.” use our platform.”
ner that resembles bank accounts. Wise even offers a debit card,
How easily Wise can do that depends on As someone based in London, where
though it is not a bank. The company is sometimes restricted in
whether it can make direct transfers or it instant payments have been the standard
countries requiring a banking license to integrate directly into
needs to work through a partner FI. In some for some time, Kean said that she is often
the domestic payment scheme and depends on partner FIs in
markets, the FinTech may have a choice of surprised by how slow money can move
those countries.
partners with well-developed digital tools in other countries, indicating room for
Wise is already directly integrated in the U.K., Australia and parts such as application programming inter- improvement moving forward. As consum-
of Europe. Transfers must be completed with the assistance of faces (APIs), but in others, it may have ers become more familiar with the concept
a partner FI in markets such as the U.S. a partner with outdated or non-existent of instant payments due to the efforts of
APIs, slowing down the process. FinTechs and other financial providers,
“The gold standard that we aim for is [direct integration] because demand for the regulatory and systemic
that’s the route to getting it the fastest and the cheapest,” “The older, legacy infrastructure can
changes to make them more common will
Kean said. be really hard to work with,” Kean said.
grow.
“I think that’s a challenge that probably
Unfortunately, having to work with a partner FI introduces added every FinTech has.”
costs and added steps. In countries where Wise is directly inte-
grated, it transfers money directly to the recipient’s account. In
non-integrated countries, it depends on the partner FI’s capabil-
ities, capacities and policies.
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Command+Shift then Click to change section heading
MONEY MOBILITY
TRACKER®
DREW EDWARDS
CEO
What is the greatest risk for FinTechs and neobanks attempting to manage That is an unfair expectation because in-house teams are inherently hamstrung by
the money-in side of money mobility completely in-house? a lack of visibility into the many types of fraudulent actors and behaviors that exist
across the entire financial marketplace. Seeing only a tiny glimpse of the market by
There are a number of challenges with managing money-in capabilities using an
virtue of their own transaction history leaves them unprotected.
in-house team. For example, the sheer scale and resources needed to maintain
true money mobility capabilities — frictionless inbound funding from any source Even in the case of banks, which have access to robust fraud databases, there
— can always be a roadblock. are gaps in coverage because these systems do not track nonbank transactions
and behaviors. And this nonbank transaction environment is often where the most
However, the biggest risk of relying solely on in-house teams is fraud. An environ-
severe fraud risks exist because they operate outside of traditional, in-person know
ment defined by instantly available funds arriving from a variety of accounts and
your customer and anti-money laundering protections.
transaction mediums — checks, cash, ACH, apps, etc. — that cannot be clawed
back or deducted if later determined to be fraudulent puts an enormous amount The most effective fraud protection system, then, is one that has a complete view
of pressure on teams to get it right the first time, every time. of the marketplace and can create a cross-functional network effect. For in-house
operations, that means tapping into partners — either alone or in combination —
that provide access to databases covering both bank and nonbank systems. This
capability provides a fuller view into the overall marketplace, significantly lessening
their risk profile.
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PYMNTS Intelligence
PYMNTS Intelligence
T
he share of disbursements received via instant payment rails has tripled since
2020, approaching even that of the most common method, same-day auto-
mated clearing house (ACH), which commands 22% of disbursements received.
In 2021, 17% of all disbursements received were through instant payment
channels, compared to 5.7% in 2020. By contrast, cash disbursements fell more than 35%
and check disbursements fell more than 50% from 2020 to 2021.
Meeting
Consumers’ Money-In
The effort to infuse the economy with That desire for faster payments also
funds through stimulus payments fol- extends to how consumers connect their
lowing the pandemic’s onset significantly accounts. Fifty-eight percent of consum-
Mobility Needs
contributed to the number of disburse- ers have linked their bank accounts to at
ments consumers received. By July 2020, least one other platform or service, such
the United States government had issued as Venmo or Apple Pay, and 57% of those
approximately 171 million payments with linked accounts would consider
totaling more than $400 billion. As eco- using a connected service in place of a
nomic pressures increased the urgency traditional bank account. This month,
of receiving funds, consumers grew more PYMNTS Intelligence examines the
interested in instant payments. Given money-in side of money mobility, includ-
multiple disbursement options, con- ing consumer preferences when opening
sumers favor instant payments when and funding accounts, the trends shap-
available. ing disbursements and what consumers
expect from account providers.
sumers’ lives, just 49% of consumers 33%, the ability to transfer funds at 31% and bill payment at 28%.
Insurance and borrowing disbursements
under 25 said they would be comfortable
81.3% 0000000000 Comfort with digital channels has prompted many consumers to
downloading an FI’s app to open a new
consider using digital-first entities as their primary FI. Thirty-seven
Product purchase-related disbursements
account.
66.6% 0000000000 percent of consumers aged 40 or younger said they would select
The type of new account they are open- Government disbursements
a FinTech over a traditional bank when selecting a primary FI.
ing also affects consumers’ channel 74.3% 0000000000
Fifty-seven percent of all consumers said they would consider
preferences. Seventy-one percent of Investment account disbursements
using an app, such as Apple Pay or Venmo, for this purpose. That
consumers said they would be willing to
80.5% 0000000000
share jumped to 75% among Generation Z respondents but fell to
open a new credit card account digitally, just 20% among baby boomers.
OTHER DISBURSEMENTS
64% would do so for cell phone billing and
Marketing/focus group participation
62% would open checking and deposit PUTTING IT TOGETHER
89.3% 0000000000
down in costs and details that can detract from a FinTech’s core
purely through digital rails. Source: PYMNTS | Ingo Money
The State Of Consumer Disbursements 2021
mission.
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NEWS &
TRENDS
CHALLENGES FACING FINTECHS AND OTHER
ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICES
MOBILE MONEY’S HEAVY LIFT POSES CHALLENGES TO FINTECHS
FinTechs looking to enable consumers’ FinTechs just starting to address ubiqui-
money mobility with a maximum range of tous payment options may not have a firm
payment options could be overlooking the grasp of how comprehensive their systems
big-picture costs if they try to tackle the need to be to meet consumer expectations.
U.K.’S ALTERNATIVE LENDERS GAIN BACK MARKET
problem in-house. Drew Edwards, CEO of Edwards said the process of expansion can
SHARE
Ingo Money, said that without experience, become never-ending, with businesses con-
it can be easy to underestimate what is stantly discovering new rails they need to Alternative lenders such as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending plat-
involved in ongoing operations and mainte- add. The upfront cost of partnering for pay- forms initially lost ground during the pandemic, but the British
nance of multiple rails. ment solutions may seem less desirable, but Business Bank says those platforms are now making gains again.
it can be a much better alternative when Mainstream lenders had the upper hand during the early stages of
considering the long-term costs of in-house the pandemic, commanding a dominant position over the influx of
development. COVID-19-related loans made with government backing. A return to
market-based lending in the United Kingdom has generated mod-
erate growth for P2P lending, from £4 billion in 2020 to £4.1 billion
in 2021.
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Money Mobility Tracker® News and Trends
Thirty percent of respondents said they worry about their finances when they are
at work, and many of those who are the most stressed by the current economic
SMBs STILL SEEK SOLUTIONS FOR LATE AD HOC PAYMENTS
environment are already barely able to cover monthly expenses, let alone plan for
their financial futures. Pay-on-demand systems can give workers a heightened Economic uncertainty also has small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) inter-
sense of control over their finances and reduce stress related to financial concerns. ested in getting paid more predictably. SMBs annually spend a collective
$28 billion on discounts and incentives to encourage business partners
to make one-time supplier payments on time, but that strategy does not
CONTACTLESS BECOMES THE NEW WAY TO GET PAID seem to be working. More than one-third of all ad hoc vendor payments
The pandemic pushed many payors — from government agencies to private busi- for which discounts are available still arrive late, and another one-third
nesses — to find an alternative to checks for making payments. ACH payment usage are paid just on time and no earlier.
had been consistently increasing for several years, but the pandemic further accel- The problem is particularly pronounced for commissions and B2B market-
erated that move. Greater reliance on ACH for transactions typically conducted via place payments, with one-third of each received later than all other ad hoc
checks contributed to a significant jump in ACH transactions in 2021 from 2020, with payments. Even with invoice payments for consulting services and prod-
same-day ACH volume rising 74% year over year to reach 603.8 million transactions. ucts sold to other businesses — the ad hoc payments most likely to be
ACH transfers for business-to-business (B2B) transactions and direct deposit for paid on time — more than one-quarter are still received late. A significant
payroll became more critical as in-person interactions decreased. Currently, 82% part of the problem could be SMBs’ lack of leverage in persuading buyers
of U.S. workers are paid by direct deposit. Additionally, some state governments to pay according to terms or by payments other than checks, which adds
switched to ACH for sending out unemployment benefits as their systems struggled friction to both sides of the transaction. Improved payment systems and
under the added weight of the economic crisis. The IRS also sent out a significant more payment options could help solve the problem.
number of ACH payments, particularly as the federal government began issuing
advance payments for the child tax credit and other credits.
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Command+Shift then Click to change section heading
modern consumer
While Gen Z consumers, who are often beginning their financial journeys, led in
new account openings in 2021, similar shares of older, more established millennial and bridge
millennial consumers were also opening new accounts.
Nearly 59% of consumers opened a new financial account in 2021. Even though the
digital transformation was in full swing, traditional financial products were the leading
account types opened. Digital discomfort when opening new accounts1
Among Gen Z and millennials, there is still some discomfort with using digital
channels to open new accounts. The top reason was the same for both generations: the
Share of consumers opening new accounts, by leading account type inconvenience of not having details close at hand.
1. Account Opening And Loan Servicing In The Digital Environment. PYMNTS.com. February 2022. https://www.
pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PYMNTS-Account-Opening-And-Loan-Servicing-February-2022.pdf.
Accessed April 2022.
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