GENEVA, Switzerland—Addressing the long-running debate about whether mobile payments will ever catch on the forecasts when digital wallets emerged, a new report forecasts that electronic swipes will pass credit card transactions in the near future.
A report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that the tipping point will occur by 2019, according to a CNet report.
“In 2014, 51% of payments in developed countries were made with credit cards. However, that number is expected to dip to 46% in 2019 as advances in technology will make it easier for people to pay for things with their phones,” CNet stated.
But this won’t apply to developing nations, where cash is still the preferred choice, CNet noted.
“In the future, blockchain technology will be used for cross-border payments, which may help ease expensive transaction fees from banks to boot, as these services are peer-to-peer, secure and less expensive. That said, it's not the preferred choice yet, but the report notes that improvements to security and the size of the minimum transaction will cause (blockchain) adoption to increase,” CNet said.