A new study from Juniper Research predicts global transaction value of digital bill payment and presentment will exceed $2 trillion by the end of 2021, up from $1.9 trillion in 2020. Digital bill payment and presentment are accessed and paid digitally, primarily through mobile banking apps. This steady growth represents the increasing maturity of the market, which is struggling for new user adoption, the firm said.
The research predicts that, while digital bill payment is well established with traditional banks, digital-only banks will increasingly expand their presently limited offerings to mirror these capabilities, aiming to broaden their revenue streams. As such, digital billing services will need to prioritize partnerships with these digital-only banks, in order to access the best sources of future user growth.
The new research, Digital Banking: Banking-as-a-Service, Market Transformation & Forecasts 2021 2026, found smartphone-based digital bill payment and presentment will account for 51 per cent of total digital bill payments in 2021, rising to almost 57 per cent in 2026; displacing online management via browsers. The report identified the ubiquity of banking apps, with the new API opportunities unlocked via open banking being critical to expanding billing reach into a much broader market; widening this ecosystem significantly.
“Success in digital bill payment and presentment is about ensuring the right connections to billers are in place,” research co-author Damla Sat said. “The rise of APIs raises new possibilities for rapidly expanding this ecosystem; making partnerships critical at this early stage.”
The research found the United States will be the single largest digital bill payment and presentment market throughout the next five years, accounting for almost 35 per cent of all digital bill payment transactions by value in 2021. The study recommends banks in Europe and Asia Pacific partner with bill payment and presentment vendors with the most extensive third-party connections to billers to drive usage.