After Money 20/20, one of the biggest fintech conferences, there are still a lot of questions about the future of money so we’ve asked Artem Tymoshenko, fintech expert, CEO of Maxpay, the hottest questions that arose during the Vegas event and his views on south Asia fintech revolution and corporations introducing their own currencies
This is a chance for smaller banks to slowly but surely built up the audience and grow their profiles, which is harder to do in traditional business verticals, dominated by big banks. I’m glad this year on Money 20/20 the whole workshop was dedicated to the future, scaling, safety, and opportunities of the cannabis banking. Legal cannabis spending worldwide is expected to reach over 30 billion dollars in 2022, it will become more mainstream starting 2020, so not only banks should be prepared, but payment processors, like Maxpay itself, should update their processing routine to make sure the transparency of the industry is maintained.
Do we need a new global payment system? Is Facebook the one to do it? Even if it’s not, could anyone stop them?
I believe that we need to take a harsh look at what we have now in the payment ecosystem and agree upon the ways of optimisation. I’m not a fan of the existing big players reinventing the same old regulations and processes. I realise the appeal cryptocurrency have among people: no one can control the financial system, once the rules have been agreed upon. And there’s no way to change at least, you know it, everyone will agree upon the changes. But I’ve also seen the concerns about Facebook’s ambition with Libra, despite that they promised not to use users’ financial records without consent to target ads. They also announced 27 partners: Mastercard, Shopify, Visa, Spotify, eBay, Uber (which announced Uber Money and Uber Wallet itself) PayPal etc., and New York Times ones said that each enterprise partner will be expected to invest at least USD 10 million. Facebook is trying to distance itself through Calibra: a subsidiary that will handle the company’s involvement. So if you want to know my opinion on a new global payment system, I will agree that if Facebook or Google will implement their currency and make it obligatory to use their services (a matter of time now), the financial market will be affected devastatingly.
Will AI and assistants become a commercial banking reality for customers going beyond banks with apps?
Fintech industry is developing quickly, but so are the customers’ expectations that companies have to exceed, simultaneously navigating the changing regulatory environment. I firmly believe that AI can be a game-changing technology and enables banks to address the needs of modern users. That’s why the AI market has exploded, forecast to reach USD 46 billion in spending by 2020. Microsoft says that the quarter of this is coming from the financial services industry. I sure hope that banks will pick up the pace fintech set and ditch their old apps, which bring users nothing but frustration. AI and assistants are also a matter of accessibility, and if done right, paired with a proper security system, this can be a reality for commercial banking. Amazon already announced Alexa handling and accepting utility bills through bill payment provider Paymentus. It’s happening.
You have deep expertise in finances, in particular, you are CEO of Maxpay, from your perspective how fintech partnerships could help the business grow?
I’ve been in fintech for over a decade now. I’ve seen trends come and go with not so many to stick around. But one thing is clear: only through collaboration and partnership we can grow the industry further. As a payment service provider, we in Maxpay rely on partnerships with acquirers and businesses to operate successfully. I’ve read that the largest deal in the Fintech sector in the first half of 2019 was valued at 43 million US dollars. The total value of M&A activity by August 2019 reached USD 121.18 billion. How do you think growing economies and regions grow? They have beneficial conditions for new banks, fintech startups etc. Big companies go for smaller, for innovations; smaller startups are growing with access to resources only corporations have to result in lower customer acquisition cost, wider geographic i.e. And the best part of it – an improved client-centric experience. One of Maxpay’s mottoes is ‘Merchants first’ and by collaborating closely with banks, other startups, anti-fraud platforms, we support it every step of the way.
About Artem Tymoshenko
Artem Tymoshenko is a fintech sector professional with experience in international acquiring, payment systems, processing systems, e-money, risk management, network and system security, digital self-service, and e-billing. He is a CEO of Maxpay, an international payment service provider with extensive risk management and fraud prevention expertise.
About Maxpay
Maxpay provides merchants with solutions that let their users pay intuitively with a seamless payment experience. Our simple, clean, and device friendly payment forms can be integrated quickly, with a few lines of codes. They are also easily customisable. Maxpay also gives you site audit advice and help to prevent chargebacks and fraud with rule-based scoring, trust list, and user reputation system. We also can negotiate lower processing rates for the merchant’s business and provide them with multiple merchant accounts, so there are no revenue drops.
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