Yesterday, consultancy firm Capgemini released its annual "World Payments Report", revealing that Australians are living up to their reputation as early adopters, with the fourth highest rate of "non-cash transactions per inhabitant" worldwide. The report covers all major markets and highlights that while mature western markets continue to lead the way in non-cash payments, "emerging Asia" is experiencing growth of 27 per cent year on year, driven by increasing internet accessibility and the rapid adoption of mobile payments. In particular, non-cash payment volumes in China are predicted to surpass those in Germany, the UK, France, and South Korea, moving into fourth position globally. Mobile payments grew by 170 per cent to reach 4.5 billion transactions, making it a core element of China's payments system.The report uses transactional data from 2013, and makes a projection for 2014 as data is not yet available for 2015.It shows that, in Australia, the banks still have the inside running, but Capgemini warns they should not be complacent and take the continued loyalty of their customers for granted.According to Phil Gomm, head of banking and payments at Capgemini Australia, the banks' position of trust will be eroded in coming years if they do not provide what customers demand.Customers demand the ease of use and immediacy that the internet has taught them to expect. Delivering this in the payments world requires the transformation of processing, which in turn can facilitate innovation. Offerings based upon immediate payments systems and new technologies such as blockchain will increasingly be the route via which customer demands are met."Fintech players are targeting the front end of the value chain, which is the easiest point to disintermediate the banks," Gomm said. "If the banks don't deliver to expectations, the fintechs will."He added that one way for Australian banks to defend their "ownership" of the bank accounts at risk of transitioning to fintechs was to extend the advice they provided to customers, rather than just processing transactions.Gomm compares the situation to one where customers have "lots of different value containers" where they hold their money. "You might have money in your Starbucks card; you might have a general purpose reloadable from Australia Post; you might have a couple of bank accounts; a couple more credit cards; and you might have a Google wallet or a Samsung pay as well. "What a bank can provide - if they can aggregate all those accounts - is to position themselves as the central services provider to their customers; then the key advice they can provide back to their customer is on liquidity."The other big contender for disruption of the banking sector is the rise of stored value items, such as gift cards in the retail sector, where money is loaded onto cards and the cards are sent to customers. The loaded value on the card usually comes from a bank account or cash over the counter. In Australia the value of hidden payments is still quite small, although globally Capgemini suggested it