Business View Magazine | December 2020

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 the cost of maintaining legacy technology in their payments systems is impeding their ability to invest in new customer solutions. For example, even though many banks have adopted cloud systems in other parts of their business to improve operational resiliency, only 38% of banks are investing in cloud systems for payments. With the pandemic creating a new inflection point for companies to accelerate their digital transformations, Accenture recently announced an investment of $3bn over three years to launch its Cloud First practice to help businesses accelerate their move to the cloud. “Banks are stuck in the cycle of improving their payments systems with ad-hoc technology solutions to meet new industry standards and reduce costs,” Agarwal said. “Banks are waking up to the reality that the way to make meaningful changes that resonate with consumers is to make payments modernization a business priority and that it can no longer be confined to the IT department. Successful banks will be those that embed modern payments into how it runs and is governed, with more attention to flexible IT architecture and cloud technology that is better integrated across the business.” About the research Accenture conducted an online survey of 120 payment executives in 20 countries between July and August 2020. Surveyed markets include: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, UAE, U.K. and U.S. Accenture’s forecast of non-cash transactions in consumer spending is calculated using cash evolution data and MSC rates provided by GlobalData. The expected drop in cash volume is based on GlobalData & Accenture Research assumptions. www.accenture.com OPENING L INES