Retailers and banks need each other, but often have very different perspectives on payments. The situation is not helped by a growing number of intermediaries, specifically Fintech players. This series of three reports commissioned by ACI Worldwide and written by Celent explores how payments relationships can be reimagined, taking a perspective of each main party, namely retailers, banks, and Fintech.
Celent has released a new report with ACI Worldwide titled Banks, Retailers, and Fintech: Reimagining Payments Relationships, Part Two: The Retailer Perspective. The other reports in this series also published today include:
The reports are authored by Zilvinas Bareisis and Gareth Lodge, senior analysts with Celent’s banking practice.
Banks, retailers, and Fintech form a payment ecosystem that we believe is more symbiotic than many would want to admit. Retailers care about accepting payments efficiently and effectively, but also have various other needs, from physical cash management to borrowing money and paying suppliers.
Retail banks have been responsible for most of the payment instruments issued to consumers and used at the merchant tills. Yet, it is corporate banks that have the main relationship with retailers. Even though both sides may belong to the same universal bank, they often operate in silos.
Fintech companies sense the opportunity and are trying to insert themselves in a variety of ways. What will their growing presence mean to the relationship between banks and retailers? Will it prove to be a wedge further driving them apart, or the glue that bonds everyone together?
Celent believes that it is time to reimagine the payments relationships between banks, retailers and Fintech. Combative stances and door slamming will only result in lost opportunities for all.
To reimagine those relationships, it is helpful to start by understanding the perspectives of each main party. Therefore, Celent has written three reports in the series with each exploring the perspective of a different stakeholder. This report looks at retailers and examines three research questions below.
“Given the pressure that banks are feeling, it would seem at first glance that banks need retailers more than retailers need banks,” says Lodge. “However, whilst retailers focus on managing their supply chain, banks play a vital role in the financial supply chain for a retailer, including regulated actives a Fintech company simply can’t supply. All the parties in the ecosystem are, and will still be, required, but how they work together will undoubtedly change. As a result, those most able to change, whether bank or retailer, are most likely to see this as an opportunity and not a threat.”
This 20-page report contains five figures.
