I have always believed that the instructions "lather, rinse, repeat" on the shampoo bottle are a marketing ploy to sell more shampoo. Colloquially, the phrase has taken on the meaning of continually repeating the same actions or behaviors. As the Retail Payments Risk Forum team members prepare for our annual look-back at payments news and developments, we're asking ourselves, "How different was 2021 for consumers and businesses compared to 2020? Or was it a case of lather, rinse, repeat?"
With a global pandemic emerging in early 2020, consumers, businesses, and payments providers were forced to consider their payments choices in ways not before experienced. Cash acceptance and use, coin circulation challenges, contactless adoption, migration to e-commerce for everyday items like groceries, and financial inclusion issues highlighted by the pandemic were frequently featured in mainstream news as we all sought to keep ourselves healthy and safe.
As we approach the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, we're also asking, "To what extent is the pandemic continuing to shape consumer and business payments habits and behaviors? As daily life slowly returns to normal, will consumers and businesses revert to their prepandemic ways?"
In the Risk Forum's December 16 year-end Talk About Payments webinar, four payments experts will explore these questions and discuss emerging or increased risks since 2020. Some topics for discussion include:
- Data security, ransomware, and fraud
- Real-time payments and underserved consumers
- E-commerce and shopping trends
- Crypto and the persistence of cash
As always, we're allotting time for participant questions, and we welcome the insights you have gained navigating the last two years.
Please join us for our 2021 Year in Payments Review webinar on December 16 from 1 to 2 p.m. (ET). The webinar is free and open to the public. However, you must register
, after which we'll send you login information. If you cannot attend the live event, a recording of the webinar will be posted before the end of the year.
If you'd like to view previous webinars, go to our Talk About Payments webinars page.
We hope to see you on December 16!
By Nancy Donahue, a project manager in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed