Retail banking is witnessing a revolutionary moment in China. With over 1.5 billion active users, Alipay™ and WeChat are reshaping the payments landscape with a deluge of innovations that are making both cash and traditional card payments anachronistic in some cities. While mobile payments languish in the low single digit percentage in the U.S., more than half of WeChat’s users scan a quick response, or QR, code regularly to pay at a retail location, and Alipay’s “pay with a smile” is using facial recognition to let consumers buy fast food.

With  SME Finance Forum member Ant Financial (Alipay’s parent) having the most blockchain patents and live blockchain production systems of any financial institution in the world4 (and they are also building a payments system that can handle 100 billion transactions a day), the accelerating pace of change in China shows no sign of abating and we are truly witnessing a great leap forward. India may also be in the early days of this type of payments revolution, with mobile payment volumes up 22 times in a 12-month period and with the combination of demonetization and standardized mobile payments infrastructure driving rapid adoption. 

In this paper, Accenture places a banking lens over the five emerging tech trends highlighted in the cross-industry Accenture Technology Vision 2018. Each of these IT trends could potentially generate the next wave of industry disruption that banks can ill afford to ignore, even in markets that currently look stable and profitable. Only by understanding these trends can banks ensure that they are truly future ready.