Maintaining safe and secure digital payments requires all hands on deck

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Last year was a watershed moment for payments. Data shows that 2024 was the year sending money or paying merchants digitally shifted from a convenience to a ubiquitous service that nearly every American uses. McKinsey reports that an all-time high of 92% of Americans made some form of digital payment in 2024. With more consumers than ever shopping online and using digital platforms to pay small businesses or cover their share of the bill, this trend shows no sign of slowing down.

Following this trajectory, digital payments will continue to grow in adoption in 2025. However, it's crucial to delve deeper into the underlying trends that are propelling this shift toward digital payments, and the opportunities and risks these changes present.

From shifts in consumer expectations to the fight against criminals and scammers, here are three trends that will define payments in 2025.

First, consumers will demand seamlessness and immediacy more than ever. One of the key factors driving the shift toward digital payments is how Americans shop every day. Over the past decade, e-commerce giants like Amazon have created a seismic shift in consumer behavior — and more, importantly, in consumers' baseline expectations.

When people shop online, they expect an intuitive and timely experience. At a minimum, consumers now count on being able to check out in a few clicks and for their packages to arrive within one to three days.

One way the payments industry has already met this demand is through digital wallets. Consumers are increasingly uninterested in the hassle of getting their wallets from the other room or punching in all the digits of their credit card numbers.

In 2025, expect more consumers to utilize digital wallets more often with the expectation that these digital wallets can provide convenience without sacrificing security.

Consumers demand that same ease and speed when sending money to people they know and trust. Payments companies need to keep up and offer products that provide immediate access to funds. If you pay your friend back for your share of dinner, your friend expects to be able to quickly pay the babysitter using those funds.

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The next key trend for payments in 2025 will be cash and checks continuing to decline — and that's a good thing for consumer safety. A natural consequence of increased adoption of digital payments is decreased usage of traditional payment methods like cash and paper checks. The fall of checks predates digital payments, but new P2P payments platforms have accelerated the trend. Over the past 30 years, the number of checks collected by the Federal Reserve annually has dropped 82%.

For the payments industry, the key consequence is not just that people are using fewer checks, it is that this transition to digital will mitigate a significant risk. Despite the overall decline in check usage, we are in a historic surge in paper check fraud. Fincen reported that banks issued 680,000 reports of check fraud in 2022 — nearly double the 350,000 reported instances in 2021. And that 2021 number increased by 23% from 2020. Fincen recently released an in-depth analysis of the six months following their 2023 call to action and found that financial institutions reported $688 million in reported suspicious activity during that period.

Checks are highly susceptible to fraud, with criminals intercepting mailed checks and forging them for significantly more than the original amount. The more consumer behavior shifts away from checks, the less crime related to forged, stolen or duplicated checks we will have. In 2025, the number of people who write checks will continue to decline, and consumers and financial institutions will reap the benefits.

Lastly — and unfortunately — fraud and scams will continue. The drop in check usage does not mean Americans are completely insulated from criminals. There have been criminals for as long as there has been currency, and there likely always will be. Unfortunately, criminals aren't picky about how they get paid. In 2025, consumers can expect that bad actors will continue to take advantage of both new and traditional payment methods alike to scam consumers out of their hard-earned money.  

Across the entire payments ecosystem — whether you look at cash, checks, ACH, cryptocurrency or even gift cards — tech-savvy criminals represent a major threat to the average consumer. Last year, the FTC received 2.6 million fraud reports — and documented $10 billion in consumer losses.

The criminals are not going to slow themselves down, which is why we need to remain vigilant as an industry and why citizens need to remain vigilant with their money. Protecting Americans from criminals perpetrating scams requires a range of solutions — from strengthened technology to consumer education to public policy coordinated across the government and to law enforcement. In 2025, government, law enforcement and private industry will — and need to — increasingly work together to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. 

As we look toward 2025, the payments industry stands on the cusp of a new era marked by rapid digital transformation and evolving consumer expectations. These changes present both opportunities and challenges, requiring the industry to innovate while safeguarding against fraud and scams. To manage both the promise and perils of yet another transformative year for digital payments, key stakeholders across sectors must collaborate to ensure a secure, efficient and inclusive payments ecosystem.