Strategic priorities in 2024

Picking the right strategic objectives is not simple, especially with the industry facing rapid growth and regulatory change. To find out what firms are prioritising, we asked respondents what their top three strategic focuses are for 2024:

%

customer acquisition

%

customer experience and retention

%

reducing operating costs

Customer acquisition, customer experience and retention, and reducing operating costs emerged as the top three priorities for firms. However, there’s a relatively even split across all priorities, including optimising the back and middle office (48%). This indicates firms are aiming to balance meeting customer expectations with optimising operational efficiency.

Company size biggest determiner of strategic priorities

While there are some differences between the strategic priorities of US and UK payments firms, the biggest differences emerge when we analyse the results by company size.

500 employees or fewer

Greater than 500 employees

Large payments organisations (more than 500 employees) plan to focus on customer acquisition, customer experience and retention, and reducing operating costs over optimising the back and middle office. In fact, our survey found that the larger a payments organisation is, the less likely it is to prioritise back and middle-office optimisation in 2024.

We can speculate that more established firms have substantial resources available to them. So they can focus more on other areas while having sufficient resources to handle back-office processes.

Operational efficiency is more important than ever

Our survey found that almost nine in 10 now regard operational efficiency and costs as more important to their business than ever. Operational efficiency is a common goal for all financial organisations. However, the rapid growth of the industry means efficiency is especially important for payments firms. Organisations now need operations that can handle vast transactional volumes and growing payment methods. But this often results in larger teams and increasing operational complexity. Over the next few years, we can expect more firms to automate their processes and use new technology to improve operational efficiency and cut costs.

How far do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "Operational efficiency and costs are now more important to our business than they have been historically":