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Education

countries (like Africa and India) will grow as consum-
ers who had no access to or have refrained from making
payments via banks or credit card schemes find more
efficient ways to pay. We may even see more branch-
less bank payment options in the West as digital banks
become increasingly popular. 2017 may also be the year
when more innovative credit card payment schemes
similar to Union Pay will emerge, changing the face of
payments.

8. Boosting security

Security strikes terror in the hearts of both merchants
and consumers. Merchants fear cyber-attacks that can
cripple their enterprises; buyers worry that their credit
card details will be hacked and cloned for false shop-
ping sprees. In 2016, we have witnessed the slow but
steadily rising adoption of EMV (Europay, Mastercard
and Visa) in the United States, which promises to boost
payment security.

U.S. retailers taking part in the ongoing EMV incorpo-
ration process are now obligated by credit card schemes
to support P2PE, a Payment Card Industry Data Securi-
ty Standard-certified card reading technology situated
at the merchant location or POS that converts confiden-
tial credit card data into indecipherable code to prevent
hacking and fraud. Retailers who have not made the
transition to EMV are now more vulnerable than before.

Prediction: Industry experts believe EMV adoption will
reach a 90 percent threshold in 2017, thereby providing
significantly enhanced security for merchants and con-
sumers.

In 2017, a growing understanding of fraud and hacking
risks will boost awareness of the need for merchants
to maintain vigilance in upgrading to new versions of
EMV and PCI standards when they are announced. In-
creased awareness of security threats will also galva-
nize merchants to update payment terminals in 2017,
even when using an external payment processor.

Ongoing payment challenges

While I have provided my forecast regarding payments
industry developments in the coming year, as anyone
familiar with the industry knows, unexpected
developments and surprise dynamics are part and
parcel of the fintech roller coaster. So hold on to your
hats; 2017 promises to be an exciting year for everyone
involved.

Oren Levy is an experienced professional with over 15 years' experi-
ence in payments, commerce and global business. Prior to Zooz, Oren
was an executive director at Brookline (USA) for 11 years, managing
its worldwide sales efforts and strategic partnerships initiatives.
Before Brookline, Oren held marketing, business development and
technical positions at BATM, Fundtech and L.G.E.S. oren@zooz.com

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