Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2019 – what`s in store for payments and fintech

Daria Rippingale, CEO, Bankingblocks

One of the biggest trends of 2019 will be partnerships with all-in-one providers. In even faster disruption pace, businesses will look for the best connection to as many financial products as possible in a fraction of time. Only one contract with Bankingblocks will allow fintechs and PSPs to access real multi-currency IBANs, POS and ecommerce acquiring, a wide variety of alternative payment methods, transaction screening, KYC and AML checks, risk mitigation, future-proof core banking platform, PCI 1 compliant gateway and more. With Bankingblocks, fintechs, PSPs and corporates will be able to build their own customer-centric payment solution and step up their game.

Derek Fattal, Senior Corporate Counsel, BlueSnap

Until recently, there were just two primary payment experiences— in-store consumers handed their payment to a cashier; or they entered their information on an online checkout page. In recent years, payments began to diverge from those familiar paths as digital and in-store experiences are increasingly converging. The continued emphasis on seamless payments will also contribute to this trend.

Simplification is a payment processing industry trend that’s just on the horizon. All-in-one payment solutions are available that provide extensive and flexible coverage for just about anything a merchant wants to offer. We see more merchants taking advantage of these solutions in the upcoming year to make their payments life easier.

Ralf Gladis, CEO & Founder, Computop

We will witness the rise of biometric authentication. Mastercard has already announced to require issuers to provide biometric authentication to cardholders. While biometrics will provide security as well as convenience, European merchants will focus on old school payment methods like direct debit and open invoice in order to avoid PSD2 two-factor authentication damaging their conversion rate.

We will see a heavy increase in NFC payments. Card transactions are overtaking cash as the most popular form of payment in the UK and more countries but – after all those years – the challenge for merchants will still be delivering omnichannel experience and payment like order in-store, return in-store or ship from store.

Andrew Mitchell, Vice President, Development and Infrastructure Support, JCB

Asian spending in Europe will continue to grow impressively from both tourism and ecommerce, notably from Chinese consumers. With overall Asian ecommerce predicted to grab up to 50% global marketshare by the mid-2020’s, the diversity of payment methods will increase, and competitiveness will continue to motivate European high street retailers to diversify their payment acceptance portfolios. JCB is seeing strong interest from partners across the payments sector, which suggests that merchants are increasingly tailoring their activity to accommodate Asian consumers and explore all avenues for growth.

Dirk Mayer, Senior Consultant, RISK IDENT

Fraudsters continuously search for gaps and change their behaviour as soon as a modus operandi is spotted. It’s much harder to verify data and get near time feedback, for example, during an application process. And in some scenarios, it’s not acceptable to wait until we have collected enough data. That’s why we need expert rule sets. But in more and more digitalised processes our algorithms themselves may be vulnerable. So what will be the next big trend? What about bottom-up-rulesets, anonymized shared knowledge and more?

Meirav Peled, Payment Partnership Director, Riskified

Both ecommerce retailers and their customers stand to benefit from increased use of automation. Merchants are setting up advanced marketing flows, and fully automated fulfilment and shipping centers. But automation can also create blind spots when it comes to fraud. For example, automating the BOPIS (buy online / pickup in-store) process often means shoppers need only a digital token or code to collect their goods. In 2019, merchants using these flows should make sure that digital indicators like IP and device fingerprints for BOPIS orders are scrutinized carefully. Otherwise, it’s easy for fraudsters to use stolen cards to click and collect.

Alex Barrotti, Founder & CEO, TouchBistro

Payment processors and merchant acquirers will need to develop a strategy for the integration of the payment device with software vendors. They will start to view POS and software solution providers as a channel that can bring them customers and augment their sales. Also, the PayFac business model will start to appear in other markets besides just the US.

As regards the B2C mobile payments, I believe more and more stores will adopt the Apple Store model of eliminating checkout counters, allowing sales associates to take payments anywhere in the store on their mobile devices.

About Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2019

Conference & exhibition

Date&Venue: February 19-21, 2019, InterContinental Hotel, Berlin, Germany

MPE is the Europe’s largest retail and e-commerce merchant payments acceptance conference & exhibition. The conference connects merchants, acquirers, PSPs, payment processors, schemes, regulators, gateways, POS HW/SW solution providers and FinTechs from 40+ countries.

150+ TOP industry speakers will cover the latest technologies, trends & business models of merchant payment acceptance, checkout & conversion, fraud & security and customer shopping experience. 1000+ attendees, including 200+ merchants and 400+ acquiring banks & PSPs will network in a cozy atmosphere of 5-star hotel and get inspiration from 70+ solution providers showcasing cutting edge payments & POS solutions.

Request the Agenda & register with Holland Fintech special rate “mpePAYPERS10”. To get 10% off, please visit www.merchantpaymentsecosystem.com