Digital payments have gone from novelty to default in five years. What comes next

The central bank's statistics show digital transactions multiplying many times over since the pandemic, with wallet and QR payments leading. (‘Current Macroeconomic and’)

Smartphone ownership did the heavy lifting: once most adults carried one, the shops followed the customers. (‘Measuring Digital Development:’)

From payments to finance

A payment history is a credit record. Lenders are beginning to use it for small loans to people who never had collateral, which is where the real change in access to finance will come, and where the regulatory questions begin.