Oxman: A Year of Growth and Innovation for Payments, and for ETA, Too
By Jason Oxman, Chief Executive Officer, ETA
As the global trade association for the payments technology industry, it is ETA’s job to make sure that our payments technology companies – and the hundreds of thousands of payments professionals they employ – are supported by top-notch resources to grow their businesses and the industry.
2018 was another year of fast-paced innovation and growth for the payments technology industry, and for ETA, too. With the support of our members – from our Board of Directors, to our committee members, to our event sponsors, exhibitors, presenters and attendees – ETA and its staff of dedicated professionals achieved impressive milestones for the payments industry this year.
ETA’s Membership Grows, Embracing New Industry Players
Our industry has changed significantly since the early days of ETA. Tech innovation has inspired a wave of change across payments, and new entrants like Payment Facilitators (PFs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and FinTechs have shaken up everything from the sales channel to the very infrastructure of a payment. In 2018, ETA grew its membership even further past 500 member companies, a growth largely fueled by the influx of new players from across these critical segments. In fact, 41 payments technology startups, many of them ISVs, PFs, VARs and FinTechs, joined ETA in 2018 by taking advantage of our new discounted membership program to get connected in the payments industry.
ETA Events Reach a Larger and More Diverse Audience
More payments professionals than ever before attended ETA events in 2018. At TRANSACT, our annual show and the leading payments industry trade event, more than four thousand people came together at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. We included new features for a changing ecosystem, like a brand-new Payment Facilitator education track specifically tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs, acquirers, developers and others working in the PF space. We offered more networking events and built more meeting space than ever before to help our community cultivate connections and partnerships. On the show floor, software companies and startups flourished in our Startup and NextGen Park zones, and hundreds of exhibitors from across the ecosystem made it our biggest TRANSACT yet. Make sure to mark your calendars for the next TRANSACT, April 30th – May 2nd, 2019 at Mandalay Bay.
ETA also expanded our ever-growing TRANSACT Tech event series to bring leading-edge conversations and unrivaled networking straight to the hubs of our industry’s growth. In New York, Atlanta, DC, and San Francisco, we brought together hundreds of leaders from companies inside and out of ETA’s membership. With one-day explorations of topics like payments security, software and tech disruption, and a heavy emphasis on elevated networking, our TRANSACT Tech events provided payments players with new ways to engage and grow.
ETA Launched New Programs to Support a Dynamic Marketplace
In 2018, ETA launched a suite of new products designed to support the modern payments technology ecosystem. In September, we launched the ETA Self-Regulation Program (ETA SRP) which improves security and reduces risk in our industry by identifying and acknowledging ISOs, acquirers and PFs who have a deep understanding of the risks associated with financial services. The first of its kind in our industry, ETA SRP is the seal of responsible risk management in our industry and affirms the payments industry’s commitment to maintaining robust programs.
In conjunction with ETA’s Risk Fraud and Security committee, we also launched updated versions of our Risk Guidelines for Merchant and ISO Underwriting and the Risk Guidelines for Payment Facilitators. ETA’s Guidelines were developed as a tool to assist in the risk management of the payments industry, and 2018 updates to our guidelines put them at the leading-edge for forward-looking players in our ecosystem.
Updated Education
ETA’s Certified Payments Professional (ETA CPP) program is the flagship professional certification for the payments industry, and in 2018 we saw the number of payments professionals seeking a certification grow by double-digit percentages. In the competitive marketplace our industry operates in, it’s more important than ever to have an edge. We made it a goal at ETA this year to make it easier for payments professionals to become certified. To better prepare ETA CPP test-takers for success and provide them with the latest in online tools, we launched our first-ever online ETA CPP exam review course. We also overhauled and updated our ETA CPP continuing education online quizzes to make them more accessible and user-friendly, and refreshed ETA CPP curriculum to reflect the more dynamic industry of today.
ETA also launched new online courses for payments professionals to get the latest in industry change and innovation, including an Intro to Payments designed for PFs. Available to everyone, these courses give ETA members and stakeholders across the world access to leading-edge content that can inform innovation.
New Spotlights for Payments Leaders
Underneath all the transformation in our industry are people, places and stories that have made the payments industry creative and cutting-edge. It is an important part of ETA’s role to bring to the forefront voices who are powering the past, present and future of the industry.
Just before TRANSACT, ETA launched our first-ever Forty Under 40 to recognize the next-generation of leaders who are game-changers and innovators. At the Strategic Leadership Forum, we inducted eight payments industry visionaries into our inaugural ETA Hall of Fame, recognizing the incredible impact these leaders have had on growing and shaping the ecosystem.
We launched Transaction Trending, our official podcast, in January. Every two weeks throughout the year, we brought a wide range of voices to the industry’s airwaves, including the CEO of the world’s largest payments processor, startup entrepreneurs in the ISV, PF and FinTech spaces, payments security experts, sales channel experts, industry analysts, bankers, policy experts and retailers.
A Unified Advocate for Payments Technology
ETA is the voice for payments technology, and our public policy team put together another impressive year advocating in the halls of governments across the country and the globe. Twenty-six state governments, ten Congressional committees, seven federal agencies, three countries – these numbers represent a fraction of the work ETA’s team completed to grow a public policy environment that supports payments growth and innovation.
We expanded our advocacy efforts in Canada during 2018 to give our members a stronger voice for forward-thinking policy that advances innovation and global partnerships in Canada’s changing marketplace. With the support of a council of ETA members, we built on our existing programs focused on the future of fintech in Canada by engaging Canadian policymakers through additional activities like fly-ins and policy days.
Our annual Payments Fly-In on Capitol Hill gave our members the opportunity to meet directly with Members of Congress and policymakers in Washington, D.C., and we brought together hundreds of stakeholders at our annual TRANSACT Tech DC/FinTech Policy Forum in D.C. in September. We hosted fly-ins in states including New York and California and filed comment letters to agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Treasury. We launched a new series called Spotlight Calls for members to connect with policy experts from across the ecosystem. Finally, we testified before Congress as well as the US Trade Representative on issues touching the payments industry.
Reflection
Underneath the exciting new products and event premieres, ETA continues its daily work of educating and connecting the industry. Transaction Trends – both its online and print version – reached tens of thousands of readers this year. ETA committees and councils met regularly and pushed out critical guidance and thought leadership for the ETA membership. Our webinars delivered the latest intelligence on pressing industry topics to more than 300 attendees, from conversational commerce to PIN on Glass.
The work that ETA does is powered entirely by our active and engaged membership. Whether you contributed to a committee, became an ETA CPP, participated in an ETA event or kept up with our work this year – thank you for all that you do to support our association. Where 2018 was an incredible year of growth, 2019 promises to be an even greater expansion of ETA’s work and the payments technology leaders who power it.
Thanks to all for your great work in 2018. We’ll see you next year!