Don’t look for many optimists in the payments industry when it comes to a future with less fraud. Fully 84% of those surveyed by TD Bank say payments fraud will become a bigger threat over the next one to two years.
Released Tuesday, the survey, conducted this spring at the NACHA Payments 2018 conferencein San Diego, found that of the 390 respondents only 16% believe payments fraud will be brought under control in that time frame. Fraud, especially for digital goods, which soared 167% in 2017 , shows few signs of abating.
When asked what is the greatest challenge facing payments innovation today, 32% of respondents cited cybersecurity issues. That was bested by 36% declaring a need to update legacy infrastructure.
Other challenges cited included cross-border transactions, 14%; potential fintech regulations, 8%; data regulations, 6%, and controversy around cryptocurrencies, 4%. Regarding cryptocurrencies, 64% of those survey do not view them as a legitimate form of digital payments.
Where will the innovation in payments come from? In this survey, more—42%—said the integration of immediate-payment capabilities, such as real-time payments and Zelle, the bank-owned person-to-person payments network, would have the greatest positive impact through the next five years. Other responses included artificial intelligence, 20%; mobile apps, 14%; blockchain technology, 11%; fraud and cybersecurity software, 9%, and biometrics, 4%.
As for same-day automated clearing house transactions, which were live for credits and debits almost a year ago, 64% said the volume was what they expected. Nineteen percent said it was higher, and 17% said it was lower than they expected.