Top 10 FinTech Trends to Watch in 2025
Juniper labs puts FinTech under the spotlight and calls out AI hype!
This Top 10 FinTech Trends to Watch list will be the first of many as we approach the end of the year. Fortunately, Juniper’s is a solid read with some downright amusing highlights!
First, these Top 10 lists should all be read with a grain of salt. None of them are ever right, and they are at their most interesting when they highlight trends that slipped under our personal radar.
Now, speaking of slipping under your radar, this is where I give credit to Juniper for picking a few more obscure than normal trends.
My personal favorites in this list are the changes in Apple NFC, Behavioral Biometrics, and Juniper’s brave call on AI hype. While most top 10 lists have AI front and center Juniper is calling out the hype! It’s about time!
My comments below are on my Top three picks and two that I call “bunk!”
👉TAKEAWAYS
Apple NFC to Boost Competition in Digital Wallets
This is a big one that many of you may have missed. In August 2024, Apple announced that it was widening this access significantly by enabling third parties to offer NFC payments on iPhone outside the EU market.
With these developments, the status quo within digital wallets is being heavily disrupted. The important questions are what effects will this have, and how transformative will it be?
I agree with Juniper that this will be VERY transformative, with banks and other existing apps now able to access and build payments on Apple.
One argument against this being a big trend is that Android’s NFC has been open for years, and we don’t have wallets built specifically for it.
Virtual Cards to Revolutionise B2B Expenses and Procurement
Behavioural Biometrics Driving Shift to Passive ID Verification
Static biometrics can make it particularly difficult to spot fraudulent actors before they have gained access and committed their crimes.
We believe that 2025 will see the wider deployment of behavioural biometrics, a form of passive ID verification, to enable businesses to better track the continual behaviour of a user and allow for ongoing authentication. This will contribute to addressing a business's KYC (Know Your Customer) tasks and allow for the redirecting of manpower with greater efficiency.
Great tech, and I hope this prediction is true!
eCommerce Merchants to Adopt ‘Glocal’ Payments
BUNK! Payments that are both global and local in nature, allowing international businesses to accept payments in different geographic markets, are not new. This has been underway for years and is anything but new!
Come to Asia to see it at work! It’s already here. Yes, glocal will grow, but this trend is from this year, not next year.
Regtech to Accelerate Amid BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) Compliance Challenges
Banks to Invest in PSD3 and PSR1 Readiness
Capital One’s Acquisition of Discover to Challenge Visa & Mastercard
BUNK! No it won’t. Visa and MC have such a large lead that Discover will always be a bit player. Unless it cuts fees or does something radical it will always be a “why bother” card.
Wero and Instant Payments Harmonisation to Transform European Payments
I hope Wero A2A payments take off in the EU and becomes Europes first unified payment system. That said, this prediction is absolutely a crap shoot! Wero’s growth rate doesn’t support an EU payment revolution just yet. I wish it did!
AI Hype to Diminish as Fraud and Identity Drive Innovation
As banks and other financial institutions become disenchanted with Al hype, efforts for Al within 2025 will focus heavily on automating and improving fraud prevention and identity verification.
Fraud prevention vendors have successfully developed Al solutions that can detect and analyze patterns a human might overlook, making it an ideal tool for identifying fraudulent activity in a complex and ever-changing landscape.
Thank you Juniper for tackling the hype!
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