As 2019 comes to a close, we look back and see a lot of formative changes that happened here at Berkeley. From new partnerships, to expansion of services, and new teams dedicated to innovating technology and product offerings, we can only be excited at what 2020 has in store.
Looking into the coming year, we see several trends beginning to sweep the payments landscape, and shape how fintechs are moving forward. So, without further ado, here is our 2020 Trends Forecast.
Invisible Payments - Emergence of the Virtual Card
We are seeing a rise in the use of virtual cards in business payments. Why? Payments are beginning to be embedded into other services leading to invisible or frictionless payments for a more seamless end user experience. It's all about the experience and ease of use, which brings us to it.
Demand for Speed - The Real Time Transaction
Consumers have been demanding for a while now the need for real time transactions, deposits, and transfers, and the payments space is finally answering their calls with real time payments like our DirectSend product. While not everyone has this capability yet, 2020 is sure to bring much more innovation and implementation of real time payments to consumers for that competitive edge.
Digital Landscapes
If we've learned nothing else over the course of 2019, the one key takeaway to remember is that everything is going digital. We saw mobile wallets, challenger banks, services like Venmo and more dominate this past year and it's only going up from there. The demand for digital is going to be a big driver of the innovation we'll see in 2020.
Simple Syrup - A Solution for Everyone
Among the demand for real time, invisible, and digital payments, there's a resounding echo for solutions to be simple and easy to use. While enabling simple solutions can often be complex on the back-end, consumers want card products to be easy to access, activate and use. So what does this mean for 2020? It means financial institutions and fintechs alike are shifting how they build, structure and execute their card products to keep up with the demand.
Multi-Dimensional Solutions
And finally, 2020 will see more multi-dimensional payment solutions coming to market. Gone are the days when card products or payments were a small part of the entire offering. Businesses are looking to payments solutions that allow different services to be layered and connected building a robust solution that addresses all of their needs.
