Talk with Jocelyne Mwilu, Chief Executive Officer, PPI France

When will it be possible to pay with a wink or a smile?
Very soon. In China, Alipay already allows you to pay with on-screen facial recognition. Amazon’s cashierless stores in the US, where purchases are made by scanning the palm of the customer’s hand, caused quite a stir in 2019. A similar experiment by a French player is about to launch.

In these examples, however, hardware still plays a role.
Truly new payment experiences will be enabled by Web.3 and Metaverse – technologies that merge the physical, digital, and biological. The processes involved – i.e., without a card, smartphone, or display – are only possible if two fundamental factors are in place: the acceleration of biometric recognition methods and regulation that limits usage and thus protects the freedom of the individual. After all, we are talking about the processing of personal data and money.

How can the risk of deepfakes be mitigated?
Blockchain combined with artificial intelligence would be a big step forward not only in terms of speed and smooth processes, but especially in terms of payment security.

These technologies are ready. What else is needed for a product to really take off and be widely accepted?

To create truly new customer experiences, the various players need to come together and work on reliable technology solutions and smooth, innovative payment methods that solve their customers’ problems and do not create new ones for them.

New problems?

Whether it’s an individual or a business, ease of use, ergonomics, simplicity, and availability are paramount to widespread adoption. It must not be possible for a system to go down for maintenance, for example. Today’s customers simply won’t accept that, no matter how complex a technical solution may be.

What is the most promising strategy for a bank or payment service provider today?

Players who break through the aforementioned technological barriers have the best chance of customer acceptance and true commercial success. Payment systems need to be more resilient and agile than they are today, and they need to implement innovations more quickly. This is because customers demand convenience, availability, and security at all times. Instant payments are indeed an opportunity. However, it is imperative that players modernize their systems to integrate new technologies quickly and without a lot of coding and custom development. This is the only way to be more agile and avoid latency, even during maintenance or high transaction volumes. The challenge is to reduce time to market and realize return on investment.