This Financial Insights report presents a comprehensive five-year spending forecast across seven payments market segments in the United States: automated clearinghouse (ACH), credit cards, debit/ATM cards, item processing, stored value cards, wire transfers and other. This forecast also segments spending by four technology categories: hardware, software, services, and internal spending. The U.S. payments marketplace is undergoing profound and far-reaching change, as traditional paper payment methods such as checks and cash are being replaced by electronic payment methods such as automated clearinghouse (ACH) and cards. These changes affect not only financial institution revenue but also the direction of new IT investments, as financial institutions are seeking to develop a more flexible payment infrastructure that will allow them to keep up with the changes.

According to Aaron McPherson, research director, Payments, "Flexibility must be the top priority for financial institutions at this time of unprecedented change. Financial institutions must move away from closed proprietary systems toward a more interconnected IT infrastructure to support the kinds of value-added services that will replace declining payments revenue."