The technological evolution that revolutionized Digital Payments

The dynamic payments sector has often been a leader of innovation, being able to anticipate new trends and quickly adapt to challenges imposed by the market.

During the pandemic period, for instance, the payments industry was able to react and build a robust and efficient infrastructure that not only withstood the impact of closures and limitations, but also supported citizens and economic operators, fostering business continuity.

In the post-pandemic era, banks and payment services must continue the innovative path they embarked on, without interrupting their evolution and increasingly managing to scale economically.

The state of digital payments

As we now know, the pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technologies in everyday life and, as a result, there has been a significant increase, especially among consumers, in cashless payment methods.

According to the “SPACE 2022” report by the ECB, in 2022, 17% of all daily payments in the Eurozone were made online, compared to 6% in 2019. In terms of economic value, the share of online payments in 2022 was 28% (+14% compared to 2019), indicating that this type of payment is preferred for higher amounts. In Italy, one out of two transactions is made with a credit card, 5% with a bank transfer, and a significant 27% (the third-highest in Europe, behind only the Netherlands and Germany) with alternative online payment methods including digital accounts (such as PayPal), “Buy Now Pay Later” systems, and financing. The remaining 17% is settled with other types of payment, including vouchers, gift cards, and cryptocurrencies.

The pandemic has accelerated the inclination towards digital payments, and it will be the behavior and purchasing habits of consumers that will drive innovation, forcing financial players to reconsider and update their operational models in order to support the expansion of their offerings while putting user experience and consumer needs at the center. Consumers will have to live an increasingly omnichannel and complete experience.

The innovation of digital payments

In this context, fintech companies have the role of innovators and are supporting businesses in digitizing their supply chain and value chain with the aim of modernizing payment methods and improving settlement times and procedures.

Historically, most companies have relied on payment engines, each built on a monolithic legacy architecture to manage individual payment types. Over time, this has evolved to an open architecture, allowing payment companies to implement a scalable architecture based on components that can easily integrate new payment types and channels.

The key term in this scenario of change is “composable,” a term that encompasses the mindset, technology, and processes that help organizations innovate and adapt quickly to changing needs. The components of this “process” are connectable, scalable, and replaceable, allowing payment companies to continuously improve through agile development.

Organizations that follow the principles of modular business have the advantage of scaling and reacting to market and consumer needs more easily and quickly. A modern and composable platform, in the world of payments and beyond, can be built on critical legacy systems, allowing for easy adoption of innovative products and services.

In this way, payment companies can leverage existing functionalities, develop new ones internally, or adopt plug-and-play and ready-to-use third-party services through a composable architecture. (Source: World Report Series – Payments 2022 – Capgemini Research Institute for Financial Services, 2022).

Mia-FinTech for digital payments

In this context, Mia-FinTech comes into play, thanks to its cloud-native platform and the Mia-Platform marketplace, which enables financial companies to develop and deliver digital services quickly and scalably and evolve towards Open Finance thanks to APIs, microservices, and Fast Data. It also allows accelerating the development and orchestration of own microservices and third-party services related to the financial ecosystem.

Dedicated to the moment of payments, Mia-FinTech has just launched a new application, available in the Mia-Platform marketplace. The Payment Integration Hub allows managing the entire life cycle of digital payments, supporting all major digital payment methods, and also providing a customizable white-label front-end, a back-office for transaction monitoring and management, and the ability to easily integrate with other providers.

Conclusions

Given the increase in digital payments, there has been a natural innovation and proliferation of actors in this industry.

To ensure an omnichannel experience for consumers, it is necessary for payment industry players to adopt technology that can support this evolution and meet the constant demands of users.

In this context, Mia-FinTech, through its Payment Integration Hub, provides the technology to manage the entire lifecycle of digital payments, monitor them, manage transactions, and easily integrate with other providers. Mia-FinTech’s Payment Integration Hub is a powerful tool that enables businesses to streamline their payment processes and deliver a seamless payment experience to their customers. By leveraging this technology, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and meet the growing demands of today’s consumers.