What does the world financial community look forward to in 2022?

Hello 2022!  I am so happy that we can finally meet. Sadly, 2021 was not the love story I expected it to be, and I couldn’t wait for you to arrive, 2022! Well, let’s face it, “wait” is probably the word that defines 2021: let’s…wait for the world to return to normal, wait for borders to re-open, wait for the inevitable new variant. I also found myself anticipating developments on the payments front, readying myself for long-delayed payment innovations to go live like P27 and Open Banking Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs).

Towards the end of our relationship, 2021 really tried to make it work. The latter part of the year was full of twists and turns, like a binge-worthy TV series you can’t stop watching, including:  

• A return to in-person events, where we could finally interact with old payments friends without a screen in the way (and, if we were feeling particularly bold, we could even hug them!) 
• Surging Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), with central banks worldwide taking their exploration of virtual currencies to the next level. It was almost impossible to keep up with all the reports released by central banks detailing their research, industry discussion and experimentation.  
• Significantly more interoperability, with a growing number of solutions for payments to seamlessly hop across borders and settle in near-real-time. I could not stop smiling when I read the RTP-RT1 announcement or news of the future link between Singapore PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface.   

To be fair, the problem was probably not only 2021. If I am candid, I have had my eyes on you, 2022, since both SWIFT and the ECB announced the revised ISO 20022 deadline, pushing back the start of a new global payments paradigm. Banks can finally deliver long-overdue payments services leveraging this modern, richer messaging data model, including better liquidity management and reconciliation services. Due to this migration alone, I am already infatuated with 2022. Yet, there is more to come. Among them, I cannot wait for the following: 

• Finally seeing blockchain technology solutions delivering on their immense promise as payment platforms like Partior  (#PaymentsGeek). 
• Seeing financial crime getting under (I wouldn’t dare say full) better control. With year-on-year fraud in the UK 30% higher in the first half of 2021 or 2021 being the worst year on record for online child sex abuse, what more needs to happen before banks finally take action to implement solutions such as RedFlag Accelerator? 
• Starting my journey as a digital art collector and acquiring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from what could turn out to be a future Picasso. Alternatively, there is the option to tokenise the random photos taken by my children and make $1 million out of them (assuming I can understand how OpenSea works!) 
• Further diversifying my asset portfolio by following my US friend’s lead and buying a few cryptocurrencies through Binance.
• Worrying less when I hear my Gen Z sister is subscribing to yet another Buy Now, Pay Later scheme, as I’m counting on new regulations to bring this area back under control. 
• Making new friends in the Meta world and shopping for bargains at ‘meta-Walmart’. 
• Being paid to play with an Axie Infinity Scholarship – it turns out that studying in 2022 means learning how to be a gamer (What????!!!😱).
• Using CBDCs without having to move to Nigeria, China or the Bahamas.  
• Witnessing embedded finance continuing to skyrocket as the travel industry restarts. 
• Last but not least, creating a more sustainable and inclusive financial services ecosystem , working with Mojaloop (stay tuned more announcement on this 😉) and expecting great progress after 28 banks signed the Commitment to Financial Health and Inclusion and set targets to achieve within 18 months of signing.