Additionally, the report finds that people in rural areas and consumers who are older or have disabilities are at risk of being excluded from new and innovative payment services. This is interesting, because there is a perception (perhaps an incorrect one) that older people in particular may not be the most obvious beneficiaries of technological developments. Equally, it seems that people in rural or isolated areas could potentially benefit from new and innovative payment services. This is evident from the Nordic countries, which have led many developments in payment services including mobile payments and other alternatives to physical cash transactions, partly out of geographical necessity.

Global datasets

Most PSPs and third-party providers do not have access to global transaction data, only their own data. The PSR suggests that access to a wider dataset by these providers would be beneficial in terms of developing fraud prevention and AML measures. In the light of this, the PSR is considering opening up access to global data.

While there are some clear advantages to consumers from the use of overlay services (for example, facilitating direct payments between a customer and a retailer, without using the card rails), it has to be for the service providers to convince consumers of the potential benefits of the services. It often seems like benefits associated with the availability of payments data are mostly in favour of the service providers rather than consumers, making the sale of the service tougher.

Enhanced data

Lastly, the PSR addresses the issue of realising the benefits of enhanced data, or payments data that provides more than the bare minimum of information about the transaction. It is suggested that this  information could be used for several purposes, including among others, invoice reconciliation. The PSR identifies the cost to upgrade systems to include enhanced data as well as the need for sufficient demand from end-users as potential obstacles to realising this benefit.