Interview

Money without borders - exclusive interview with PaySend

Tuesday 11 September 2018 09:54 CET | Interview

Ronnie Millar, CEO Europe at PaySend: PaySend enables card-to-card money transfers from customers in more than 60 countries

Can you share with our readers why you have founded PaySend? What problems does your company solve?

PaySend Transfers has been looking at what are the preferred methods for people to receive money all over the world. We came to the conclusion that the easiest way is to direct the money transfer to any Visa or Mastercard, so that people can start paying around, withdraw cash at millions of ATMs and have the freedom to use the money the way they want.

Therefore, for us, it is all about convenience, for both sender and receiver. The sender can enjoy a flat low fee and transact on the go by using our mobile app, while the receiver doesn’t have to do anything – they just see the incoming transfer as a credit or a new balance on their card account. All you have to provide is the name of the person to whom you want to send money to and their 16-digit number displayed on the front of their card. No more forms, account numbers, IBANs, BIC, long queues and trips to pick the money at the banking branch.

What is more, you can do the transfer through our website or via the mobile app in your smartphone. Nothing is easier than that!

With 12 billion cards on this planet, the potential is massive and that’s why our customer base has tripled over the course of the last year. We are currently sending to over 60 countries, with new countries being added to our global footprint every month.

What is PaySend’s onboarding and identity verification process? How safe is it to send money from card-to-card?

We are UK regulated company and, of course, we take compliance very seriously by following all standard procedures mandated by FCA to verify customer identities and the source of funds.

Apart from the FCA license, we are certified by Visa and Mastercard, with all transactions and customer data being protected in line with the highest PCI DSS standard.

When it comes to security we often get this question, yet the 16-digit number and the recipient’s name are not enough for fraudsters to make unauthorized payments. Putting it simply, if this data gets into the wrong hands nobody could do anything with it as they would also need to know the card expiry date and 3-digit CVV code.

There are several verification levels which need to be passed in order for the transaction to be successful. Both payment systems and banks are very vigilant when it comes to risk management and we are proud that we are compliant with all of their security requirements. All in all, the trust of hundreds of thousands of happy PaySend clients is the best evidence that we always take security seriously. For our senders, the money transfer through our website or the app is not any different from a regular purchase online.

What were the growth challenges you had to overcome and how did you get past them?

The key challenge was to build an infrastructure which supports our growth. We rely on the issuing banks and global payment schemes to process a transaction, and of course we have to provide for the timely settlement and reconciliation on a global scale.

Given the number of currency pairs, local banks, partnerships and countries, it’s a monumental task to make the whole system work like a clock. That’s why we take a great pride in making it happen both for our customer and our partners.

What benefits does the global account bring to the table and how is it different from other non-bank money transfer solutions?

Our second product is called Global Account and it’s a smart card linked to a mobile wallet where you can hold both fiat and cryptocurrencies. The beauty of it is that you can use it to instantly convert fiat to crypto within the app and pay for your latte with bitcoins.

It also allows to buy cryptocurrencies and store them in the wallet or transfer them to any other wallet holder account. Cryptocurrencies can be converted to fiat and vice versa, and you can also withdraw cash and pay for goods and services like with any other card out there.

This way we put our consumers in control of their finances, allowing them to spend, hold and move money in multiple currencies as if there were no borders.

What is the competition in this market? What is the company’s competitive advantage?

We compete with old school money transfer players who use traditional means of sending funds.  However, we do it cheaper, faster and with added convenience for our customers.

Our competitive advantage is our ability to build a global payments disruptor business and an infrastructure to support implementation of the latest financial technologies.

What are your plans and goals in terms of expansion and products?

First, we will keep driving a global expansion of our Transfers business by adding more countries for the convenience of our customers, both sending and receiving.

Moreover, we will make cryptocurrencies available to the masses by rolling out our Global Account across Europe. We will continue to disrupt the way people move money around the globe and innovate further by launching new exciting products in 2019.

About Ronnie Miller

Ronnie Millar is a serial entrepreneur with 20 years of experience across multiple sectors – fintech, SaaS, pay TV and business services. Prior to starting PaySend, Ronnie has been a co-founder of PayWizard, a leading pay TV subscription platform supporting 300 payments methods and 100 currencies worldwide.

 

About PaySend

PaySend is the UK fintech company and payments disruptor on a mission to change how money is moved around the world. We are the next generation money transfer platform allowing to send funds from card-to-card to 60+ countries.

No more cash, no more complicated forms to complete, no more bank accounts. Just the 16-digit VISA or Mastercard number. Easy, fast and secure way to send money overseas.


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Keywords: Paysend, Ronnie Millar, interview, money transfer, card-to-card, payments , cryptocurrencies, MasterCard, Visa, global account
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