Paradigm Shift Impacting Payments - Increasingly Real-Time and Embedded into Customer Processes
Liisa Kanniainen — Nordea
Payments are undergoing a paradigm shift driven by geopolitical factors pushing Europe toward account-to-account instant payments and digital euro adoption. Local and pan-European schemes like Bismarck, CEIBS, Banco Mat, and EPI foster interoperability. Instant payment regulations mandate banks provide instant payments across channels, enabling real-time, event-driven corporate use cases via API-first approaches tailored to customer needs. Cross-border payments are evolving into structured, instant corridors. Platformization embeds payments in customer journeys, emphasizing authentication and consent, heralding programmable, automated, and resilient retail and corporate payment futures.
"The future of payments will enable automated and real-time use cases, putting customer authentication and consent at the center, and transforming corporate payments towards instant, event-driven, and programmable solutions."
Summary
- Payments are undergoing a major paradigm shift driven by geopolitics, regulation, and digital transformation. - Europe is moving towards account-to-account instant payments with local schemes and pan-European initiatives. - Instant Payments regulation mandates banks to offer instant payments across all channels, transforming corporate payment practices. - Cross-border payments are evolving from correspondent banking to real-time, data-rich, and structured payment corridors. - Future payments will be automated, real-time, programmable, and event-driven, focusing on strong customer authentication and consent.
Article
The future of money: How real-time technology is revolutionising payments
European banking expert outlines seismic shifts reshaping how we pay and get paid
In an era where digital transformation touches every aspect of our lives, perhaps no industry faces more fundamental change than payments. At the Nordic Fintech Summit, Liisa Kanniainen delivered a compelling analysis of the paradigm shifts reshaping how money moves between people, businesses and across borders.
"It's never a boring day in payments," Kanniainen told the audience gathered at the summit. "Especially now – there is a lot going on." Her presentation revealed how geopolitical pressures, regulatory changes and technological innovation are converging to create what she describes as a "paradigm shift" in payment systems globally.
Geopolitics driving European payment autonomy
A central theme of Kanniainen's analysis was how geopolitical tensions are accelerating Europe's push toward payment sovereignty. Recent events, including Russia's actions in Ukraine and political changes in the United States, have intensified European efforts to develop independent payment infrastructure rather than relying on international systems.
"Geopolitics is driving Europe towards account-to-account payments both in store and online," Kanniainen explained. "This is connected to the Digital Euro's push for known payments infrastructure."
This sovereignty movement is manifesting through numerous local payment schemes emerging across the continent. Southern European initiatives like Bizum, CEIBS in Portugal, and Bancomat in Italy have established interoperability between their systems. Meanwhile, Central European countries are pursuing a more top-down approach through the European Payments Initiative (EPI), which aims to consolidate national schemes.
Instant payments transforming corporate finance
Perhaps the most significant development identified by Kanniainen is the EU's instant payment regulation, which mandates that banks provide instant payment capabilities across all channels – including the traditionally batch-based corporate banking environment.
"Instant payments are maybe the biggest change driver," she noted. "The regulation requires banks to provide instant payments in all channels—including host-to-host. This is transforming corporate use cases."
For businesses, this shift represents both opportunity and challenge. Corporate treasuries must reconsider established payment workflows, potentially moving from scheduled batch processes to real-time, event-driven operations.
Kanniainen advocated for an API-first approach tailored to specific use cases rather than applying legacy technologies to modern requirements. "If we use thirty-year-old technologies for the most modern use cases, it would be like putting a Macintosh computer on a DOS system — it simply doesn't work," she said.
Cross-border payments leaving correspondent banking behind
International payments are also undergoing fundamental transformation, moving away from the traditional correspondent banking model toward structured, data-rich payment corridors. This evolution promises to make cross-border transactions more efficient, transparent, and potentially real-time.
The changes address longstanding complaints about international transfers – high costs, slow processing times, and opacity – issues that have remained stubbornly persistent despite technological advances in domestic payment systems.
Banking platforms embedding into customer journeys
Another significant trend identified was platformization – the embedding of payment functionality directly into customer processes rather than requiring users to interact with separate banking interfaces.
"Payments and banking are platformising, meaning banks need to develop a platform strategy to embed payments into customer journeys," Kanniainen explained. "The customer is not coming to the bank; rather, the bank is coming to the customer."
This approach fundamentally changes the relationship between financial institutions and their users, potentially making payments invisible within broader commercial or personal activities.
The future: programmable, automated, and resilient
Looking ahead, Kanniainen painted a picture of payment systems becoming increasingly automated and programmable. For retail customers, this might eventually include delegating payment authority to agent systems, with authentication and consent remaining the only mandatory human touchpoints.
For businesses, treasury operations could become predominantly event-driven and real-time, significantly enhancing efficiency and reducing manual intervention.
However, Kanniainen emphasized that this transformation must occur incrementally: "This is a big paradigm shift for the whole industry, and that's why the transformation must happen in steps."
As the financial world gathers at the Nordic Fintech Summit to discuss these developments, one thing becomes clear: the future of payments will be defined not just by technology, but by the regulatory frameworks, business models, and customer expectations that shape how we move value in an increasingly real-time world.
Part of Nordic Fintech Summit