Yet, in the midst of the Lunar New Year celebrations, we find ourselves facing a challenging landscape. Inflation is rising rapidly; Singapore, for example, has introduced a higher rate of Goods and Service (GST); and in the tech sector, we are seeing a wave of layoffs as some of the world’s largest tech firms grapple to stay on course in the face of post-COVID corrections. However, it is not all bad news. The fintech industry is expected to see significant growth in Asia this year and current predictions suggest the global-payments revenue, which APAC accounted for over 50 percent of in 2021, will top US$3 trillion by 2026. As we leap over the economic challenges, there is a lush landscape of opportunities for the tech and payment sectors across the APAC region to graze on.

As the retail sector becomes even more competitive, transcending borders and channels, merchants and enterprises are fighting to get the attention of consumers, wherever they may be. But, as the digital-payments rabbit leaps through this competitive landscape, it must remember the lesson from that well-known fable: it must not stop to rest on its laurels and be outdone by the slow and steady tortoise, but instead it must innovate to maintain pace throughout this year. Innovation and creativity thrive in difficult environments, so we should expect great things this year.

One area where we can expect to see creative-use cases is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) systems across the B2B industries. Due to the larger and more-expensive purchases involved in the case of corporates, it can be challenging to implement a BNPL system for B2B transactions. However, as more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) turn to BNPL for their 0-percent interest rates, we can expect businesses will take the leap to integrate BNPL systems to attract more customers in the current environment.

Across the APAC region, BNPL has continued to surge in popularity with consumers, evolving to become Live Now Pay Later (LNPL). When money is tight, consumers want to spread their costs for new work wardrobes, flights for their next escape or even routine health and dental costs. We can expect consumer-payment trends like BNPL and LNPL to continue to evolve with entrants into the APAC market likely to come from China and the United States.

Alongside BNPL, new digital-wallet functionality often combined with embedded finance services and apps will appear on the scene, paving the way for merchants, enterprises and payment-service providers to offer customers unrivaled and highly personalized payment experiences.

Where innovation grows, it is vital that regulation must follow, particularly in the payments industry, where trust is of paramount importance. We have already witnessed active regulators over the last year in the region with the BNPL space and the crypto-industry, protecting consumers while promoting innovation.

In a market that is forward-thinking from a digitalization standpoint, it is surprising to see that digital banking is a concept that has seen a slow introduction into the region up until now. Popular for some time in the US and Europe, in 2023, we will likely see digital banks surge in popularity across the APAC region. This will throw incumbent banks into a state of disruption, in which they need to compete against offers of shopping rebates, improved interest rates and signup bonuses as well as greater convenience and the streamlined interfaces of digital banks.

However, traditional banks are leaping toward the same opportunities as their fintech counterparts, increasing their offerings and stalling digital banks from winning the race for now. It will be exciting to see how the new and old players battle it out this year, in the hopes that this will also spur innovation in the banking sector. 

Could this be the year that most of us take our first jump into the metaverse? Shifting our perspective on reality, big-tech companies and financial institutions are foraging for their pixelated piece of metaverse, which is estimated to be worth over a trillion dollars by 2024. In December, Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) announced plans to use the digital rupiah to buy products in the metaverse in the future. Many central banks around the world are also developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for use in the metaverse.

This emerging technology could have a transformative impact on APAC economies, with the metaverse having the potential to have its own digital economy with integrated payments and an avenue for commerce. Though it is still in its dawning stage of development, countries such as China and South Korea are already ahead of others when it comes to adoption rates and regulatory stances on developing and integrating the metaverse. Hopefully other markets in APAC will mirror these steps and we will see collaboration between regulators and industry players as we journey toward making the metaverse the next big transactional channel. 

While the year of the tiger promised adventure and bravery, as well as an element of cruelty, which we saw play out in 2022, the year of the rabbit promises to be a bumper one for the APAC payment market. With innovation, rapid advancement of digital payments and new technological experiences presenting endless opportunities for those that seize them, I am left wishing you and the payments industry gong he xin xi (good luck in the year ahead).

---

The writer is the vice president of partnerships and head of Asia Pacific at PPRO.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia