Mentions of the internet of things within the filings of companies in the payments sector fell 31% between the second and third quarters of 2021.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to the internet of things between October 2020 and September 2021 was 31% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

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When companies in the payments sector publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. The internet of things is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether the internet of things is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the payments sector, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned the internet of things at least once in filings during the past twelve months - this was 56% compared to 42% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to the internet of things.

Of the 50 biggest employers in the payments sector, Agricultural Bank of China was the company which referred to the internet of things the most between October 2020 and September 2021. GlobalData identified 24 internet of things-related sentences in the China-based company's filings - 0.5% of all sentences. Sberbank mentioned the internet of things the second most - the issue was referred to in 0.4% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high internet of things mentions included Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Haci Omer Sabanci.

Across all companies in the payments sector the filing published in the third quarter of 2021 which exhibited the greatest focus on the internet of things came from Bank Hapoalim. Of the document's 2,149 sentences, 16 (0.7%) referred to the internet of things.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on the internet of things and how important the issue is considered within the payments sector, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning the internet of things more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into the internet of things have been successes or failures.

GlobalData also categorises internet of things mentions by a series of subthemes. Of these subthemes, the most commonly referred to topic in the third quarter of 2021 was 'ambient commerce', which made up 76% of all internet of things subtheme mentions by companies in the payments sector.

GlobalData is the parent company of Electronic Payments International and its sister publications