In increasingly competitive markets, the payment experience has emerged as a critical factor to grow market share. Yet a new Global Payments Insight Study of consumer finance, higher education, insurance and other billing organization executives—conducted by ACI Worldwide and leading market research and advisory firm Ovum—found that most organizations lack the payments innovation necessary to win consumers.

Principle findings of this study include:
Executives not prepared to innovate

• 65 percent of organizations recognize they face growing competition when it comes to payments, including:
  • 76 percent of consumer finance companies
  • 60 percent of higher education institutions
  • 59 percent of insurance companies
• 59 percent of organizations are not confident they are flexible enough to drive innovation in payments, including:
  • 75 percent of consumer finance companies
  • 60 percent of higher education institutions
  • 47 percent of insurance companies

Seismic shift from cash to electronic payments

• 25 percent of organizations stopped accepting cash last year
• 30 percent increase in the number of organizations accepting electronic payments over the last year
• 80 percent accept electronic payments, while only 65 percent accept paper payments

Increasing investment in payment services as competition increases

• 55 percent of organizations increasing investment in payments
• 37 percent holding investment constant
• 8 percent decreasing investment in payments
• Organizations want to increase investment in real-time payments (50 percent), mobile payments (48 percent) and biometric authentication (38 percent)