万国邮政联盟-作为中小微企业支付数字化推动者的职位（英）

POSTS AS ENABLERS OF MSME PAYMENT DIGITALIZATIONPublished by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Berne, Switzerland Printed in Switzerland by the printing services of the UPU International Bureau Copyright © 2023 Universal Postal Union All rights reserved Except as otherwise indicated, the copyright in this publication is owned by the Universal Postal Union. Reproduction is authorized for non-commercial purposes, subject to proper acknowledgement of the source. This authorization does not extend to any material identified in this publication as being the copyright of a third party (e.g. through an image credit). Authorization to reproduce such third party materials must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.AUTHORS: UPUTITLE: Posts as enablers of MSME payment digitalization, 2023ISBN: 978-92-95116-27-6DESIGN: Sonja Denovski CONTACT: ihab.zaghloul@upu.intPOSTS AS ENABLERS OF MSME PAYMENT DIGITALIZATION4Posts as enablers of MSME payment digitalizationEXECUTIVE SUMMARYGlobally, formal and informal micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for approximately 90% of all businesses and, on average, 70% of total employment and 50% of gross domestic product (GDP).1 MSMEs are the backbone of domestic economies. Accordingly, they are set to play an important role in the recovery plans put together by national governments to combat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, in terms of the MSME contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, increasing annual investment in MSMEs by 1 trillion USD would pay disproportionate dividends to all stakeholders involved. In the aftermath of the pandemic, as businesses were forced to reimagine their operational models and overcome challenges in outreach and delivery of products and services across many contexts, the disruption led to the closure of entire businesses. This has been especially true for MSMEs, which experienced revenue shock owing to supply chain disruptions or severely reduced demand. Equipped with the lessons learned over the past two years, merchants across the globe are now increasingly considering evolving their transactions with customers, to mitigate risks and shield themselves from shocks. Once considered inaccessible for merchants and their customers, “payment digitalization” is now the focus of fintechs and financial service providers (FSPs), which work to create cashless systems. Payment digitalization is a gateway for FSPs to secure a significant, untapped client base among merchants, offering more complex but tailor-made products, such as credit and insurance. Overall, the payments landscape has changed irreversibly. According to the 2021 Global Payments Report, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the decline of cash-based transactions by over three years, reaching and exceeding estimates projected for 2023 in 2020. These trends have been supported by the increase in penetration of smartphones and Internet data, with future projections predicting that the shift i