
When you hear “disruption in payments,” what comes to mind? Is it paying with your fingerprint instead of a credit card? Is it putting your money into Bitcoin and bypassing the banking system to pay?
These are surely “disruptive” innovations in payments but as last night’s Atlanta BayPay Forum demonstrated, there is also lots of disruption going on under the radar, leveraging the same payment rails put into place over 50 years ago. And as we found, just because innovations capitalize on current infrastructure doesn’t mean that they are any less disruptive or exciting than the flashiness of alternative currencies and biometrics.
The panel, moderated by Thad Peterson, Senior Analyst at Aite Group and founding member of Atlanta BayPay, included Bluefin’s Chief Commercial Officer, Guido Schulz; Michelangelo R Ho, Head of the FinTech Program at the Atlanta Technology Development Center (ATDC); Shirish Arashanapalli, CEO and Founder of Trendbrew; and Jennifer Hughes, Business Development for Vix Verify.
The panel brought an interesting mix of companies together – with Bluefin focusing on payment security solutions with PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE); ATDC incubating promising Atlanta FinTech startups; Trendbrew merging an innovative shopping platform with payments and rewards; and Vix Verify providing remote authentication of consumers and users for the banking and retail industries. So what did we learn about payments disruption from this diverse group of entrepreneurs?
#1 Payment Disruption Can Take Many Forms
Payments encompass much more than the exchange of money – whether physical with cash or electronic with a credit card or mobile wallet. Payments include all of the technologies designed to support the exchange of money, grow that exchange, and secure that exchange. Take the panelist companies as examples:
Why is this important to payments? Most payment companies (and many retailers) are woefully behind on their social media strategy. Trendbrew capitalizes on social media and influencers to increase participating retailer sales while providing issuers an opportunity to capture the sale with cashback and other offers.
Why is this important to payments? Incubators like ATDC are integral to encouraging payment innovation and ensuring the viability and continued growth of our payment system. Take ATDC incubation company Groundfloor, a peer-to-peer micro-lending platform for funding U.S. real estate deals. Investors can earn high rates of interest on short-term secured loans starting with as little as $10.
Why is this important to payments? Data breaches have risen exponentially over the past 3 years, with big names like Target and Home Depot suffering breaches, which led to the theft of millions of credit cards because this data was “in the clear” in the merchant system. This type of theft costs retailers and issuers billions each year – while shaking consumer confidence in the U.S. payment system as a whole.
#2 Payment Disruption is Often Evolutionary
One of the most interesting discussion points from the panel was that innovation has primarily happened on the peripheral, while the core, “fundamental” rails to process a payment (merchant to processor to issuer) haven’t dramatically changed. And they probably won’t – unless you want to put your money in Bitcoin. But we are not there yet.
One can argue that encryption and consumer authentication have been around for years. So how are those technologies disruptive? The same with aggregated shopping – which is a concept that eBay introduced in 1995 – or with micro-investment platforms.
The difference with the companies and technologies at last night’s BayPay Forum is that they have capitalized on previous iterations of “standard” technologies to introduce a new, better, faster or more secure product. The companies last night are proving that you do not need to reinvent the wheel – you can disrupt just by evolving the wheel into something more innovative.
#3 Disruptive Companies can go through Several Lives
As Guido Schulz said, “Bluefin is a 10-year old startup.” That could be considered a bizarre statement for a company that has over 100 employees in 5 offices, including in Ireland.
The major point that all of the entrepreneurs on the panel had in common was that at either their current company or at their previous ventures, these entities had gone through periods of transformation – where they started out one way and because of market conditions, foresight or other factors, ended up somewhere completely different.
Bluefin was founded in 2007 to provide payment processing to SMB’s but the focus turned primarily toward securing payments in 2014 when they became the first North American company to receive PCI-validated P2PE status – a sure disruptor in payments security. Vix Verify, an Australian based company founded in 2008, has morphed into a global leader in identity verification yet it just opened its first U.S. office in Atlanta 6 months ago. Trendbrew, a mere 6 months in operation but with nearly $400,000 in payments processed under its belt, is in a highly agile stage – exploring new offers, payment partnerships, and retail partnerships.
Often, it is not always about how “disruptive” a technology is but how disruptive the company with that technology thinks and behaves. Disruptive companies have the ability to move quickly to respond to market demand but also to recognize they can’t “go it alone.” All of the panelists counted partnerships as very important to their company’s success, providing a distribution channel and word of mouth that is integral to their growth.
Selon le nouveau rapport de KPMG Luxembourg, pour relever les nombreux défis, notamment ceux réglementaires Mifid2, BCBS, CRS… que l’industrie bancaire luxembourgeoise doit affronter, il est essentiel que les banques les abordent de manière transversale et holistique en mesurant le périmètre, les impacts directs et indirects de chaque réglementation mais surtout de bien considérer les interactions souvent complexes entre chacune d’elles. Une implémentation efficace et une optimisation des couts ne seront possibles si les banques adoptent cette approche pragmatique.
Pour sa dixième édition, l’analyse annuelle du secteur bancaire de KPMG, Luxembourg Banks – Insights 2015 donne dans sa première partie un outlook sur la situation financière du secteur bancaire. Cette publication phare comprend une analyse des données provenant des comptes annuels d’une sélection de banques luxembourgeoises, ainsi que des données des rapports annuels de la CSSF et la BCL. La seconde partie se concentre sur les principaux challenges pour l’industrie avec des témoignages de représentants du secteur sur leur vision concernant les difficultés mais également les énormes opportunités que ces changements vont apporter à l’industrie et leurs clients.
Commentant l’analyse de cette année, Stanislas Chambourdon, responsable du secteur bancaire chez KPMG, affirme « Malgré l’environnement actuel et la déferlante réglementaire qui ont impactés le secteur bancaire, il semble que les craintes exprimées lors de notre étude en 2014 se soient relativement dissipées, même si la vigilance reste à l’ordre du jour. Le secteur bancaire reste fort malgré les nombreux défis qui le guettent. Relever ces défis dans leur globalité avec une approche holistique sera essentiel pour que les banques puissent les transformer en réelles opportunités.
D’autre part, les clients sont de plus en plus demandeur d’une qualité de service irréprochable du back office au front office, tout en gardant sur une certaine flexibilité avec des technologies innovantes. Les nouvelles générations de clients sont demandeurs d’une industrie qui adopte de nouveaux canaux de communication tout en gardant une proximité fort avec son Relationship Manager. En répondant à cette demande et en comprenant les besoins de ses clients, les banques pourront mettre en place une véritable transformation numérique qui sera essentielle pour leur avenir».
Le rapport KPMG donnera un aperçu des grandes tendances qui façonneront l’avenir du secteur bancaire et analyse les répercussions qu’elles auront sur les produits et services, l’approche du marché et le profil des employés de banque.
Ce 18 juin, près de 150 auditeurs attentifs se sont retrouvés au siège de KPMG Luxembourg – 39 JFK – dans le cadre de sa série d’évènements KPMG Plage afin de prendre part à plusieurs débats.
Le premier débat dont le titre était le Private Banking: what are the key challenges to emerge a winner in 2020? avec Carlo Friob (CEO Private Banking, KBL European Private Bankers S.A.).
Il a été invité à présenter sa vision des éléments clés permettant de faire face aux challenges émergeants que rencontreront les banquiers privés sur les cinq prochaines années. Selon Mr. Friob, les clés du succès résident premièrement dans la qualité du service et des produits proposés “Raise the standards at all level”. La formation des banquiers privés et des conseillers dans ce contexte est primordiale, cette formation doit être holistique car elle ne peut se concentrer sur un territoire mais tenir compte des interactions entre pays. Holistique et à la fois spécialisée, la banque privée doit identifier et se doter du panel de spécialistes nécessaires à un service davantage personnalisé et de qualité. L’infrastructure informatique et la capacité des systèmes est le second facteur clé. Enfin, la façon avec laquelle la banque intègre ses processus pour lui permettre de se conformer efficacement aux exigences règlementaires constitue le troisième pilier.
Le second débat avait comme sujet New technologies: opportunity or competition. A US perspective avec Sarah Khabirpour (Head of Strategy, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg) et Daniel Chatelain (Managing Director, The BayPay Forum) et résidant à San Francisco.
Pour Sarah le point principal est “Create that personal touch by creating digital” ou “When looking from the eyes of the client, everything becomes possible”. Elle a par la suite expliqué les objectifs de la BIL pour les années à venir. « BIL 2020 » a vu le jour en mai dernier et a pour objectif de définir le cadre stratégique pour ces cinq prochaines années au niveau de chaque métier. La dimension technologique et l’innovation sont des aspects fondamentaux du programme, en ce sens qu’ils permettent de répondre aux questions « que nous faudrait-il pour créer la banque du futur ? » et « comment le digital peut-il nous permettre de créer cette touche personnalisée du service ». Dans ce contexte, les relations et la collaboration avec l’industrie du FinTech y sont clairement abordées.
Madame Khabirpour ne voit pas le FinTech comme un concurrent mais considère que la banque et le FinTech ont tout à gagner d’un partenariat, le FinTech apportant à la Banque cette innovation qui fait la différence et la Banque apportant au FinTech ses clients qui s’approprient progressivement cette nouvelle technologie mais ne sont pas encore là où l’industrie FinTech voudrait qu’ils soient...
Daniel Chatelain a ensuite expliqué que “You will have to use technology to personnalise the services” ou “We are in a maturing process whose success will depend on how actors interact”. Daniel reconnaît également que, bien que l’industrie du FinTech représente une menace concurrentielle pour certaines activités bancaires, le partenariat entre l’industrie du FinTech et l’industrie bancaire est une option favorable aux deux parties.
En effet, le FinTech peut fournir ce produit technologique que la banque ne peut fournir directement ainsi que cette avancée technologique qui lui permettra de personnaliser son service. Tandis que les banques apportent le financement, le support financier ainsi que les outils nécessaires au développement du FinTech et de son produit. Selon Mr. Chatelain, l’industrie du FinTech procure de vastes opportunités mais dans le métier de la banque elles doivent être encadrées et les aspects de compliance gérés. La façon avec laquelle les banques survivront aux nouveaux challenges technologiques dépendra de la façon avec laquelle les différents acteurs interagiront dans ce processus en pleine phase de maturation.
Fin
A propos de KPMG Luxembourg
KPMG Luxembourg est un des leaders sur le marché des services professionnels d’audit, de fiscalité et de conseil. KPMG est présent dans 155 pays et comptent plus de 162 000 professionnels qui travaillent dans les entreprises membres à travers le monde.
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Monday 10 December 2018 | 08:45 AM CET
Daniel Chatelain, CEO, PayKademy: “From ICO-based funding, people are now looking at securities token offerings (STOs) as the new phase of crypto-based funding”
Security tokens promise to increase liquidity of global assets, such as real estate, equity, debt and so many others. Maybe people are starting realizing that their “investment” in an ICO wasn’t really an investment as I discussed in my last article on The Paypers in November 2018 .
An old adage goes: more money, more problems. The rapid growth of ICOs in 2017 was also accompanied by an explosion of regulatory issues and concerns. Fraud and scams were rampant and even if I tried to find a number on the amount of money lost due to fraud, it is very difficult to differentiate between pure fraud and just bad execution in most cases. As STOs slowly gain traction, it should not come as a surprise if regulators are also all eyes on them as they ramp up their scrutiny and warnings to those doing STOs.
So how did the countries respond to this new trend in terms of regulation? It is what I will explain in this article. Some countries have taken a more proactive approach to regulation. Others are more cautious. At this stage, it is still too early to come up with a common international regulatory approach. Nevertheless, I will highlight the most active countries/regions:
Australia - the government saw that many of the startup companies rely on cryptocurrency for funding and decided to set up a formal security token offering regulation. It was quick at formulating and issuing registration requirements which are now in place. Among its requirements are a license, disclosure, and investment tracking documents.
Estonia - the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) requires STOs to register a separate prospectus in the EFSA if their tokens are considered securities under section 12 of the Securities Market Act (SMA).
Malta - the Maltese government’s forward thinking when it comes to ICOs and STOs makes it an ideal place for fundraisers. The government has passed three bills to support this emerging market initiative. Now that STOs are becoming more visible, Malta is prepared and already has legislation in place to support it.
Lithuania - one of very few EU nations that have a legal framework on STOs, and the first member of the EU to regulate ICO and adopt a crowdfunding law. Lithuania’s Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Finance also support and endorse the world’s first platform for STO called DESICO, which allows users to legally raise funds in exchange for tokens.
Malta and Lithuania have established themselves as blockchain hubs in the world when they opened their doors to STOs and welcomed changes to regulations in order to accommodate crypto-related activities. I am sure other countries will follow closely what happens there.
Asia - compared to the rest of the world, it has the most mixed reception. The rules and regulations that were formulated were either strictly for or against cryptocurrencies.
Singapore - if the tokens are capital markets products, they might be regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In the guide to digital token offerings published by MAS, the Singapore Securities and Futures Act (SFA) defines capital markets products as “any securities, futures contracts, contracts or arrangements for the purposes of foreign exchange trading, contracts or arrangements for the purposes of leveraged foreign exchange trading, and such other products as MAS may prescribe as capital markets products.” MAS highlighted that no tokens representing securities have been approved to date but I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation changed soon.
The guide also states that MAS will determine if the digital token is a type of capital markets product under the SFA by examining its structure and characteristics including the rights attached to it. According to the guide, “offers of digital tokens which constitute securities or units in a collective investment scheme (CIS) are subject to the same regulatory regime under Part XIII of the SFA, as offers of securities or units in a CIS respectively made through traditional means.”
Japan - unless the person carrying out a regulated activity in Japan is exempt, he is generally required to comply with licensing and marketing rules. An activity is described as regulated if it relates to the offer of either Type 1 or Type 2 securities. Type 1 securities include government bonds, shares, and debentures whereas Type 2 securities include interests in partnerships or CIS. However, determination of whether a token is a security and if it falls within the scope of Japan’s securities regulations will depend on a case-by-case basis.
China - at a wealth management forum held on December 1, 2018, Beijing has declared STOs illegal in China. In September 2017, seven regulatory authorities in the People’s Republic of China issued a circular which demanded that all token offerings cease immediately, and that proceeds of those that have completed their offerings should be returned to investors.
The circular also stated that cryptocurrency exchanges could no longer provide any trading services either between fiat and cryptocurrencies, or between cryptocurrencies. It does not, however, specifically address whether the circular is only targeted at domestic token offerings although the penalties mentioned suggest that the focus is only on exchanges operating in China.
The National Internet Finance Association of China stated in January 2018 that most onshore token offerings have been “cleaned up”. While tokens have continued to be marketed to PRC residents on a cross-border basis, the association also stated that it was aware and has warned investors of the risks involved.
Thailand’s SECT is currently working to issue a draft regulation that will govern the pre-sale arrangements of digital tokens. It is expected to be published for public consultation real soon. In the November 29, 2018 issue of the Bangkok Post, deputy secretary Tipsuda Thavaramara said: “the regulator will have to consider how to deal with STOs for issues such as share ownership, voting rights and dividend.” He also said that at the moment, they have not decided whether STOs fall under the Sec Act or the Digital Asset Act, but it depends on the STO’s conditions and the details of its white paper.
Thavaramara also noted that an STO affiliated with Thai investors launching in an international market at this point would be guilty of wrongdoing under the Digital Asset Act as it would avoid regulated fund-raising channels.
Conclusion
The global crypto space is still a work in progress and full of new ideas. While some countries see the growth as a good thing, others don’t seem to agree, maybe for now. The introduction of STOs which analysts predict to eventually replace ICOs has also raised concerns among regulators around the world. Although STOs and regulatory measures are both in their early stages of developments, with Malta and Lithuania at the forefront, several countries have already made a move in coming up with regulations to adapt to these recent changes in the market.
Still, not many countries are ready for this shift yet. Supporters of STOs need to be more active in promoting the benefits that STOs offer and their advantages over other fundraising activities. Maybe then more countries would take security tokens more seriously and revisit their existing securities regulations. While writing this article, I have identified several areas of risk even with a regulatory framework in place but there is no more room for more opinions. And remember that if you are interested in the topic, we have great courses on PayKademy. I know I learnt a lot from them myself.
About Daniel Chatelain
Daniel Chatelain is a payment and fintech industry executive focused on innovation and sitting on the board of directors or advisors of emerging companies. He started The BayPay Forum and he is the CEO of PayKademy.
About PayKademy
PayKademy is the new school to learn Payments. Payments are more and more an integral part of a business and few people understand the competitive advantage that you get when you understand the complete ecosystem, how it works and its pricing models PayKademy provides courses in-person, on-site and online with a careful selection of instructors, experts in the industry and a particular attention to keep the students engaged with their instructors being face to face or online as well.
Source: THE PAYPERS
Le wallet ne se résume pas à une question d’argent mais offre de nombreux services : stockage carte bancaire, programme de fidélisation, porte-monnaie électronique, reçus
La réglementation aura un impact sur le modèle économique des moyens de paiement (commissions interbancaires de paiement, DSP2, rapport Mallié sur les paiements TPE et petits montants, orientations ABE, travaux ERBP…).
Exemple de nouveau standard de paiement permettant d’optimiser l’acceptation et l’acquisition pour les commerçants : NEXO
Le rôle moteur des Assises des moyens de paiement
Les Assises des moyens de paiements organisées le 2 juin 2015 à Bercy vont contribuer à moderniser les moyens de paiements en France. Grégoire Toussaint, manager chez Edgar, Dunn & Company qui a accompagné Emmanuel Constans (président du CCSF) dans cette démarche des Assises des paiements, a donné quelques éléments chiffrés relatifs aux propositions émises par les 4 groupes de travail
Le 1e groupe de travail (Paiement à distance / chèque) indique que la France se caractérise par une sur-utilisation du chèque et une sous-utilisation du virement en France par rapport à l’Europe. On constate une forte augmentation de la carte, moyen de paiement préféré des Français, mais encore des « trous dans la raquette ».
Concernant le chèque dans le B2C, il s’agit d’améliorer le « parcours client » en matière de virement et promouvoir / accompagner une offre de virement référencé. A propos du chèque dans le P2P, il est question d’étudier la mise en place d’un lien entre le numéro de téléphone portable et l’IBAN via un «annuaire» afin de faciliter l’utilisation des virements. Enfin, à propos du chèque dans le B2B, l’idée est de généraliser, en concertation notamment avec la CGPME et l’UPA, les moyens de paiement électroniques dans les PME en lien avec la facturation électronique.
Sur la base d’un retour d’expérience en Grande-Bretagne où a été lancé Faster Payments en mai 2008, il est également question d’étudier la mise en place d’un service de paiement ou d’un service de transfert immédiat.
Le 2e groupe de travail (Paiement de proximité) rappelle que la part des espèces reste prédominante (notamment pour les petits montants) mais diminue. Des propositions ont été faites pour fixer des dates butoir (cartes, TPE) relatives au sans contact.
Face à un taux de fraude en augmentation, il convient d’après le 3e groupe de travail (Sécurité) de soutenir le développement et l’adoption de l’authentification renforcée… à cause des paiements à distance.
Le 4e groupe de travail (Innovation et compétitivité de la filière) a conclut qu’il il y avait une vraie filière des moyens de paiement en France avec 72.000 emplois directs et 18.000 emplois indirects. L’enjeu est de ne pas manquer la «2ème vague» liée au digital et à la donnée. Il convient donc de protéger et valoriser les données de paiement ; influencer les processus de standardisation sur les moyens de paiement.
Focus sur les Etats-Unis
Daniel Chatelain, fondateur et managing director du BayPay Forum rappelle dans sa présentation la prédominance des GAFA dans les moyens de paiement innovants. Ce qui n’empêche pas que de nouveaux acteurs comme Square, Braintree, Stripe… d’atteindre des valorisations astronomiques. Mais tout n’est pas rose au pays de l’Oncle Sam : des retailers comme Tower Records, Border,… ont tout simplement disparu.
Concernant le crowdfunding, dans le sillage de la cotation en Bourse de Lending Club, on assiste à une nouvelle vague de startups (Lend Up, Circle, …).
Enfin, près de 785 millions de dollars ont été investis dans les sociétés bitcoins.
Pour couvrir le marché européen, les sociétés américaines n’ont généralement besoin que d’un point de chute (grâce notamment à la loi SEPA) et optent le plus souvent pour le UK pour des raisons culturelles.
Business Case: Présentation de 6 entreprises étrangères innovantes :
Union Pay (Chine)
Ipagoo, première banque paneuropéenne dédiée à la gestion de liquidités opérant en architecture ouverte (distribue des produits des tiers).
i-zettle (Stockholm, Suède)
CashSentinel (Suisse)
GoCardless (San Francisco, US)
SEQR (Suède)
Les nouvelles technologies dans les paiements : évolution ou révolution ?
La matinée s’est terminée par une table ronde modérée par Pascal Burg, Associé, Edgar, Dunn & Company et avec la présence de Arnaud Crouzet, Directeur du développement monétique chez Auchan, Regis Massicard, Directeur stratégique paiements Europe (SECA) chez Ingenico et Olivier Tilloy, Directeur général adjoint chez S-money (Groupe BPCE).
Arlene Hauben
We recently interviewed the founder of BayPay Forum, Daniel Chatelain, a serial entrepreneur and evangelist of mobile payments. He created the BayPay Forum, working as a not-for-profit organization, to provide an international networking forum for payment and commerce executives. With more than 10,000 members and thousands of companies connected through events in the US and Europe, the organization has designed a software platform for payment professionals to get or share information about the industry.
AH: It sounds as if BayPay Forum provides opportunities for business leaders in payment and prepaid technology to get together and learn from each other. When you started, what was the Forum’s main purpose?
DC: At The BayPay Forum, we connect. We connect people to people; people to new ideas; startups to established companies and vice versa; and investors to opportunities. From the start, we wanted to bring together a community of people to accelerate innovation in emerging payment technologies, such as mobile payment, big data and the monetization of data, contactless technologies and many other areas, existing or upcoming, with a very technological and business focus.
In 2005 we held an event at Stanford to discuss alternative means of payments for merchants where we invited PayPal and BillMeLater to present their strategies. I realized very quickly that networking events alone weren’t going to achieve my goal. Over time, I developed a strategy around five stages:
The first phase was networking events that would focus on trends and bring people together to talk about them. The second was to expand the BayPay community to include every aspect of a strong innovation ecosystem: individuals; start-ups; investors and enterprises. The third phase was to create a technology platform that could scale to automate the processes required in the organization of all these events and to bring these people together globally. The fourth phase was to expand the Forum into local chapters in US and European cities, and the fifth is providing services to individuals, start-ups, investors and enterprises that could be tailored to their specific needs and increase their effectiveness in strategy, awareness or go-to-market.
AH: So far, how has your idea worked out?
DC: The BayPay Forum offers the Social Membership and the BayPay Advisors program to facilitate networking, education and action on trends and innovation. The Fintech and the payment industry are very special as relationships are key to success. No one can really do it alone. You need allies and partners. Our network of companies makes it much easier for an entrepreneur, a startup or even an established player to connect with peers in this industry, and find partners or customers. With now over 10,000 members, we get more and more requests for hosting our events, requests from conference organizers to partner with us to bring them good content on innovation and trends in this space, or from companies to help them create awareness on what they are doing.
AH: Can you give us an example of how networking has sparked new ventures?
DC: Yes, let’s look at contactless technology on the POS side. Way before the introduction of contactless cards in the US, we invited Inside Contactless (Inside Secure) and Vivotech (acquired since then) to speak about the technology and benefits associated with contactless cards in payments. A year after, we did an event on the business opportunities in contactless cards. Then a year later, we ran an event about mobile phones and how they could use the same technology (NFC) to enable secure proximity payments. Since these events, we had 100 million contactless cards issued in the US followed by the creation of Isis (JV with major US telcos) and the announcement of Apple Pay reviving the industry on the opportunities associated with NFC technology. In October, our event compared NFC, HCE, SE and TEE with 10 speakers and 140 attendees in the room and many more online as this event was broadcast live on our website.
AH: So what happens at an event? I believe many are held in Silicon Valley regions.
DC: Yes, we started in the heart of Silicon Valley. San Francisco was our second market, and although close, it is far enough from Silicon Valley that it has its own requirements and community. Then we opened Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Our process involves the understanding of a particular market that has a potential ecosystem of startups and established companies in payment or commerce. In Southern California, we focus more on entertainment, digital media and mobile for example. In 2015 we want to open new cities to replicate our success on the west coast and create a global network of innovation executives. We don’t want to confine our community to people living, visiting or interested in just the Silicon Valley.
We held three-hour events, including networking and presentations, and created surveys to gather feedback from BayPay members to improve our format or content.
Our Social Mixer initiative focuses on building personal relationships; discussion of new trends and the business behind the technology. We notify people 24 hours before the event with the precise location, which depends on the number of people who respond. Usually the events draw between 20-50 people each month. Some attendees recently were China Union Pay, Google, Visa, and MasterCard Europe who attended and discussed global payments.
AH: You developed a software platform. How did that help?
DC: We found that a software platform could implement all of the things we learned during all our years of trial and error. The platform is in its 4th generation integrating a host of elements including email marketing, event page registration, payment capability (without storing credit cards numbers), a calendar of events, membership management, a CRM system, surveys, news curation, proprietary Slideshare that is protected by password or level of membership, a content management system, a blog, a survey and poll capability and many other things under the hood to make our life easier organizing all these events.
At the end of 2014 we tested our members, our team and our technology platform with 13 events in nine weeks. The results were excellent and we are already planning four to seven events a month, with more when we open new cities. Europe will see several BayPay Innovation Days, a format we successfully launched a few years ago.
AH: Would you mention a couple of leading companies to keep an eye on (that might be game-changers in the payment industry)?
DC: There are many innovators, not just one winner in payments. Apple Pay is an interesting payment system enabling EMV and tokenization. The Retail Exchanges introduced CurrentC and they are pushing EMV and migration is coming with banks.
Companies like Securekey in Identity aggregation, Proxama in HCE and proximity marketing, Ingenico with its new Telium Tetra marketplace are just a few examples of how our industry is thriving. And the pace is not ending any time soon.
AH: What is it like to work in Silicon Valley with all those innovators? What are the next big things we can expect to see change the way consumers shop and transact?
DC: Certainly, there is an evolution of commerce with new opportunities all the time. Messaging phenomenon Snapchat is one example of how companies are collaborating to improve experiences and security. Snapchat set out to make payments faster and more fun, but knowing that security is essential, they partnered with Square, which has a ton of experience in dealing with money. People 18 or older, usually friends, are able to link their debit cards to share the purchase of goods.
I often call Silicon Valley “The Disruption Factory.” We want to make things better. If we see something broken or inefficient, there is a business opportunity. It can be a big market like Uber, Square, Facebook and many others are involved in, or it can be smaller.
Here are a few examples of areas you will see changing in the future. ACH has to be improved in the US and people are working on it. Api-ization and cloudification of services, the future of POS, Internet of Things in commerce or international remittance and payments all have a lot of potential.
AH: Finally, Daniel, what is the biggest obstacle to consumer adoption of NFC/EMV mobile payments:
DC: Glad you asked this question. The BayPay Forum doesn’t have all the answers so we did a survey of our members that indicated the biggest obstacle to consumer adoption of NFC/EMV mobile payments over the next 12 months is the lack of a reason for consumers to change from swiping cards. Nearly half of the respondents felt this was the primary obstacle, with “a lack of understanding about how it works.” Security concerns ranked third. We believe that the availability of working NFC readers during the next year, coupled with the current low use of mobile phones for payments could mean that adoption will take longer than a year. In the short term, consumers will continue existing behaviors.
Daniel Chatelain is Founder of BayPay Forum. Visit BayPay Forum online at www.baypayforum.com.
Original link: http://www.prepaidpress.com/features/5-minutes-with-daniel-chatelain.html