Impact of COVID-19 on the payment industry
                     Impact of COVID-19 
on the payment 
industry
• Even before the pandemic struck, the payment industry was quite dynamic 
over the past few years. 
• Double-digit growth rates, dizzy valuations, and technological advancements 
at an unprecedented rate are some of the indicators that prove it. 
• However, one must not underestimate the small volume decline due to 
COVID-19.

• The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the payment industry has been less severe as 
compared to the other sectors of FinTech. However, it doesn’t mean that the 
payment sector is completely immune to the COVID-19 effects.
• With social distancing and lockdown in place, the travel and transport industry has 
seen a tremendous decline. This decline has also affected all the payment service 
providers who were associated with the travel industry.
• Also, the economic uncertainty due to the pandemic has forced people to spend 
money very cautiously which has resulted in the overall reduction of consumer 
spending. This reduction in consumer spending affects both the payment 
processing services as well as to those card issuers who get their revenues from the 
interchange fees.
• As per McKinsey, the global payment revenues are expected to decrease by 10 per 
cent which would amount to 1.86 trillion US dollars in case of a muted recovery 
scenario. This is huge as the Pre-COVID-19 estimation for 2020 predicated the 
global payments revenues to reach around 2.17 trillion US dollars.

• The pandemic has also caused people to follow social distancing norms along with 
reducing physical contact among various members of their own household. This 
has also caused to reduce the use of cash in many parts of the world.
• These are just a few of the examples, the COVID-19 pandemic has completely 
transformed the shopping behaviour which has pushed merchants on the verge of 
bankruptcy. This situation is here to stay for longer than we are anticipating now. 
And it might have wide-reaching implications on the payment industry as a whole.
• In this article, we will try to discuss the impact on COVID-19 on the payment 
industry in great detail. We will have a look at its impact on several sectors one by 
one.
Mobile money
• According to research released by MX, which is a digital transformation platform for 
credit unions and banks, shows that there’s a rise of 50% in the mobile banking 
engagement since the end of 2019. It also showed that the payments made via debit 
and credit cards saw a decline of 25% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Interestingly 60% of participants also said that their prime financial institution fails to 
make them financially stronger. And they would prefer to move to mobile banking.
• According to the study by payment firm FIS, the COVID-19 pandemic is also driving 
the consumers in the US towards digital payments and mobile banking.
• According to the study, around 45% of the banked participants have changed the way 
they interact with their financial institutions. 39% of Gen Xers, 46% of baby boomers, 
and 36% of millennials are now using online or mobile banking.

• The story of Nigeria is also quite similar. The mobile money transactions in the 
country grew by 15% in the month of March and many experts believe that the 
percentage would rise in the coming days.
• Not only consumers but also governments and authorities have leveraged mobile 
money to offer efficient and affordable financial services along with addressing 
the practical challenges. Mobile money has emerged as an effective and social-
distancing friendly way to avoid cash.
• Mobile money and other digital payment options such as contactless payments, 
mobile wallet payments, QR code payments, NFC payments, facial recognition, 
etc. can inhibit the spread of the virus.
Card-based payments
• Card payments have witnessed a surge of 75% during the COVID-19 pandemic. As per the 
new data by PayPoint, this surge is due to fear that consumers have over handling cash. As 
per the trading update, the card payments saw a surge of 75.3% and 74.4% for year-on-year 
during the period from 1st to 17th April and from 18th April to 17th May respectively.
• The same period also saw a drop in the ATM transactions by around 39.9% and 33.31% 
respectively. The main reason behind this drop was of customer’s reluctance to handle cash. 
Also, many customers preferred to stay indoors due to the pandemic.
• COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for a trend that was already taking place before the pandemic. 
Before the pandemic, card payments grew by 20.6% by in last one year till 31st March 2020. 
Whereas, the ATM transactions dipped by 4.1% during the same period.
• One other reason behind the fall of ATM transactions was of UK government’s lockdown in 
23rd March which shut down all the non-essential retail stores.
International remittances
• International remittances have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Global remittances are 
estimated to decline by 20 per cent in 2020 as a result of the crisis caused by the pandemic. This decline is 
considered as the sharpest one in the recent past. The main reason behind this decline is the fall in wages of 
migrant workers.
• This is an alarming situation as around 75% of the all world’s migrants work in the countries where almost 
three-quarters of global COVID-19 cases have been reported. Moreover, the remittances sent by migrants in 
these countries is as high as 90%.
• These workers are amongst the sections who are vulnerable to the loss of employment during a situation of 
the economic crisis in the host country. If we have a look at the remittances of low and middle-income 
countries (LMICs) then the estimated decline is about 19.7 per cent to $445 billion. This decline is a major 
chunk of many vulnerable households’ financing life.
• Remittances have played a crucial role in uplifting poverty in millions of lower and middle-class families in 
developing countries. They have enhanced their nutritional income. The remittance fund is also associated 
with increased spending on education and reducing the practices of child labour.
Customer loyalty and rewards
• COVID-19 played a major role in changing and reshaping the customer’s shopping 
behaviour. When the pandemic struck the US, a large number of consumers started to 
stockpile products. The stockpiling was to such an extent that Amazon had to notify their 
customers in March that they were out of stocks for certain household staples.
• In their statement, Amazon said “working around the clock with our selling partners to 
ensure availability on all of our products, and bring on the additional capacity to deliver 
all of your order.”
• Events like these are compelling shoppers to seek alternative brands. According to a 
report by McKinsey, more than 75% of the consumers have tried new places to shop, 
new brands, and new methods of shopping during the pandemic.
• The major factor which caused a transition in customer’s shopping behaviour was 
product availability followed by the other two factors like promotions and better prices.
Conclusion
• The COVID-19 pandemic has widely impacted the payment industry as a whole. 
Few of the sectors have been impacted positively, whereas, the rest have faced 
its adverse effects.
• After discussing the impact of COVID-19 in all the payments sectors, one thing is 
pretty clear that if any business wants to survive in the pandemic, then they must 
adopt digital payments methods. They must offer their consumers a simple, 
convenient, and social-distancing friendly mode of option.
• If you’re such business or an enterprise who is looking to adopt cutting-edge 
digital payment methods then choose DigiPay which is a cutting-edge mobile 
money and mobile wallet solution that comes with all the important modules 
such as international remittance, customer loyalty, merchant services, and many 
more.
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