The real cost of “convenience”: Why cash still matters for SMEs
For SMEs, cash remains essential for resilience, liquidity, and inclusivity as digital payments still bring costs, delays, and dependency risks.
May 10, 2026
For SMEs, cash remains essential for resilience, liquidity, and inclusivity as digital payments still bring costs, delays, and dependency risks.
Digital wallets, open banking, and instant payments are reshaping competition as banks fight to retain customer ownership and engagement.
Cross-border payments remain costly and unpredictable for SMEs, despite advances in payment technology and real-time infrastructure.
Fraud is not just financial loss but a confidence shock, driving lasting behavioural change, eroding trust, and quietly slowing digital finance adoption.
Ahead of 7 May 2026, payments firms face a shift from deadline compliance to sustained FCA scrutiny, with data-driven supervision set to reshape outcomes.
European Securities and Markets Authority oversight signals a shift for EMIs, as standardised reporting demands stronger data infrastructure, governance, and technical readiness.
Agentic commerce is emerging as a payments strategy, with banks expected to provide trusted execution, controlled delegation, and robust fraud and consent safeguards.
Poland is emerging as a credit innovation hub, shifting from product-led lending to real-time, embedded credit driven by digital behaviour and transaction data.
Instant payments aren’t a compliance exercise. They demand real-time infrastructure, and EMIs that treat them as strategic will outpace those that don’t.
EMIs are rethinking treasury as rates rise. LVNAV money market funds offer FCA-aligned liquidity, diversification and yield beyond traditional bank deposits.
Customer screening is central to FCA-regulated onboarding, but phonetic matching and fuzzy search limits mean firms must test tools carefully to avoid missed risk signals.
Banks face a growing talent crisis as legacy system experts retire and younger engineers reject outdated tech, making core modernisation a workforce priority.
UK e-commerce is maturing fast, pushing banks to support both cards and open banking. Success will depend on orchestration, fraud control, and modern acquiring infrastructure.
A balanced assessment of Europe’s payments market highlights continued growth alongside rising fraud, cost pressures, regulatory complexity, and strategic uncertainty.
ComplyAdvantage outlines five 2026 milestones set to reshape UK and EU financial crime compliance, from AMLA data demands to AI governance and digital identity rollout. The landscape of financial crime
UK BNPL faces FCA regulation from 2026, requiring affordability checks and greater transparency, reshaping provider models, merchant partnerships, and embedded finance.
An analysis of why legacy AML systems are failing in real-time payments, and how flexible, risk-based and collaborative compliance platforms can support sustainable growth.
Large e-commerce retailers, travel and ticketing platforms, marketplaces, and subscription businesses rely heavily on paid acquisition, with a significant share of revenue driven by channels such as Google, Meta, and affiliates.
Payments profitability now depends on transaction-level visibility. Blended pricing hides losses, and analytics, not regulation, is the real lever for control.
Identity fraud is now a core payments infrastructure. AI-driven impersonation, real-time liability and continuous checks are defining how UK fintechs scale safely.
UK payments in 2026 will balance smarter digital wallets, AI-led commerce, VRPs and sustainability with resilience, cash access, regulation and trust.
Agentic AI promises seamless automated payments and hyper-personalised retail, but growth depends on new trust, fraud models and rules for autonomous agents.
Payment fragmentation drains resources and slows growth. A unified payment ecosystem cuts complexity, reduces costs, and gives digital businesses the clarity needed to scale.
Fraud is rising fast and criminals are using AI at scale. UK banks must modernise to real-time, unified fraud and AML defences or risk regulatory, financial and trust failure.
Banks are eager to adopt AI, but payment network compliance is too complex and risky for generic models. Purpose-built solutions avoid data, context and validation pitfalls.
The EU Digital Identity Wallet will reshape verification across Europe, offering new assurance for PSPs, but rollout will be uneven and businesses must prepare for varied adoption.
Agentic AI is reshaping how payments work, creating huge opportunities but forcing providers to adapt fast as new protocols, risks, and standards emerge.
UK fraud controls have reduced domestic APP scams, but criminals are shifting to smaller institutions and cross-border channels, making consortium data vital for defence.
As payments become faster and more digital, the industry must balance efficiency with empathy—humanising technology to rebuild trust and real connection.
LSEG highlights how rising fraud and new EU rules are reshaping payments, calling for stronger data, technology, and collaboration to rebuild trust across the ecosystem.
As fraud detection grows more complex, explainable AI is becoming essential—helping banks ensure transparency, speed investigations, and meet rising regulatory demands.
B2B payments are being reshaped by orchestration, automation, and embedded finance, enabling faster, smarter, and more scalable global transactions for businesses.
By 2050, payments will be intelligent, autonomous, and embedded in daily life, powered by AI, quantum infrastructure, and trust-driven digital ecosystems.
Stablecoins are evolving from speculative assets into practical tools linking traditional finance with blockchain. Regulation and infrastructure now drive their mainstream adoption.
AI and smart routing are transforming payments from a back-office function into a strategic advantage, driving efficiency, resilience, and better customer experiences.
The issuing model is overdue a rethink. Discover how Holistic Issuing replaces fragmented setups with a unified, agile, and cost-efficient approach.
Fraud has evolved from clumsy scams to AI-powered campaigns. This piece explores why cyber and fraud defences must now fuse into one fabric.
UK fraud losses hit £1.17bn in 2024. With AI fuelling attacks, this piece explores how banks can harness AI to defend payments and restore trust.
Firms seeking FCA Authorisation must ensure consistent business plans, permissions, and SMF roles to avoid delays, rejection, and regulatory concerns.
Friendly fraud now accounts for most card fraud claims – but it’s merchants, not criminals, who are punished. The system needs urgent reform. In the modern payments ecosystem, merchants operate
Synthetic identity fraud is rising fast, with deepfakes and AI-driven crime exposing gaps in global AML/KYC. New defences are urgent.
Card issuing is shifting from plastic to tokenisation, APIs, and embedded finance. Incumbent banks must modernise or risk being left behind.
Card networks still dominate UK retail, but QR + open banking is breaking through—faster, cheaper, and reshaping the high street.
APP fraud is rising fast in the UK; new rules, verification tech and 24/7 risk monitoring are key to shifting from reaction to prevention.
By 2030, payments will be instant, decentralised, and invisible—blending cashless systems, CBDCs, and blockchain into global infrastructure
The UK must act fast on open, global crypto rules to lead in digital assets, boost stablecoin use, drive tokenisation, and spur economic growth.
European financial institutions face rising fraud, regulatory pressure, and compliance fatigue—modernisation is now essential for resilience and risk reduction.
UK card issuers must modernise platforms, prioritise digital experiences, and embrace innovation to meet rising expectations and compete in a rapidly evolving market.
