Contrary to speculations that in 20 year’s time, e-Payments space would revolutionize banking and take over the financial services space as claimed by some experts, pundits have brushed the thought aside, saying both platforms will grow complimentarily, after all.
An information security expert, Dr. David Isiavwe had predicted that traditional banks may not be alive in 20 years time, due to rising e-Payment space, saying his prediction is premeditated on the exponential growth of e-Payment channels, where it is believed that the annual transaction value of online and mobile payments will hit $4.7 trillion by 2019.
In a paper titled ‘Addressing e–Payment Fraud: Exploiting the Technology’ at the 7th Annual Payment Systems & Fraud Conference 2016, organized by the E-Payment providers Association of Nigeria in Lagos, Isiavwe noted that as the e-Payment continues to grow, so also the activities of e-Fraud would continue to explode because the criminals will follow the money in an integrated manner onto the e-Payment space.
Only recently, a US report said the global card fraud reached US$21. 84 billion in 2015, with an expected peak of US$31.26 billion before 2018.
The report added that “It is estimated that globally, nearly 1 in 3 consumers are victimized by card fraud, with almost 1 in 5 consumers experiencing fraud multiple times in the past five years. These fraud events erode consumer trust in their banks and generate losses for multiple parties, including banks and merchants,” he revealed.
But in a sharp contrast, Dr. Jerome Agbala, a senior banking executive with one of the new generation bank in Lagos said “People should forget the thinking that e-payment will drive away real banking halls.
He said “Even though e-payment will continue to grow, there will be no time it will rubbish the need for a real banking hall because there are things you cannot do online including share management and certain documentation that needs papers.
