TRANSACT Connect: Day 2 Recap
The second day of TRANSACT Connect included a full day of virtual networking, learning and collaboration for the payments technology industry.
Keynote with Jodie Kelley from ETA
The day opened with a keynote on payments innovation in the time of COVID-19. The keynote, moderated by ETA CEO Jodie Kelley, featured Colleen Taylor, EVP, Head of Merchant Services, Wells Fargo, Dan Sanford, Head of North American Debit and Prepaid, Global Head of Contactless Payments at Visa, and Philip McHugh, CEO of PaySafe.
“I’m delighted to kick off TRANSACT Connect today with three speakers who will focus on how the payments industry is evolving in response to this crisis to help consumers and merchants,” Kelley said. “Highlighting a downward trend in consumer confidence and retail sales, and an upward trend in government activity as a result of the pandemic,” said Kelley, “it’s clear that there’s a lot of work to do, and that we’re going to feel the economic and political consequences of the pandemic for a long time.”
Philip McHugh commented, “I think of it not so much new things changing, but really accelerating trends we already saw happening in the market. For example, the lines on omnichannel are completely blurred. You have to start and lead with an ecommerce solution and maybe have an in-store solution. That’s going to be a trend that accelerates.”
Colleen Taylor shed light on Wells Fargo Merchant Services’ insights into payments trends for merchants during the pandemic. “We are seeing signs of significant attrition in the acquiring space across small, medium and even large businesses as they fail and as the impact of long shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders hit hard,” said Taylor. On industry trends that are of interest to Wells Fargo, Taylor highlighted the rapid growth of contactless transactions, a jump in card-not-present transactions up from 20 percent of volume in 2019 to 54 percent this year, an increase in call center, mobile and digital acquisition channels, and real-time payments. “Customers are unlikely to go back to the old way of doing things,” Taylor said.
Global Head of Contactless Payments at Visa Dan Sanford presented insight into the growth of contactless payments at the point-of-sale as a result of the pandemic. Sanford said that the American contactless payments market, already the largest contactless market for Visa in the world, has grown in recent months. “In fact, in the last month in March, we saw 31 million Americans tap a card or mobile device, which is almost 50 percent higher than it was six months ago. In addition, in the last twelve [months], we’ve seen a 150 percent increase in usage in contactless payments,” said Sanford.
The opening keynote concluded with Kelley announcing an ETA partnership with Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen organization to support their work in providing meals from local restaurants to first responders, healthcare workers, and those in need.
“This effort is not only feeds those who need it, it is helping to keep restaurants open and restaurant employees working. And they need our help,” Kelley said. ETA has set up a donation page for TRANSACT Connect attendees and other payments professionals to donate. “And as a show of how passionate I am about this effort, I will match donations of up to $5,000 made by conference attendees,” Kelley said. Click here to donate.
Keynote from Mastercard with James Anderson
The afternoon keynote with Mastercard EVP of Commercial Products James Anderson highlighted market opportunities in the B2B payments space. Anderson provided a look into the complex world of transactions between suppliers and buyers, which often include costly, manual and bilateral processes that add cost and time to B2B payments. “The complexity creates the opportunity to add value and find new ways of helping people be more efficient. That’s exciting for us,” Anderson said, noting that solutions to these problems extend beyond payment cards. “This is a story about how we make B2B better, leveraging card and other payment rails for the benefit of both buyers and suppliers.”
Insights from Day 2 Track Sessions
In the Risk, Fraud and Security Track, ControlScan’s Marc Punzirudu, Vice President of Security Consulting Services and Christopher Strand, Chief Compliance Officer, IntSights participated in a discussion on quantifying risk management moderated by The Green Sheet’s Dale Laszig. “There are three things everyone should do in risk management,” Punzirudu said. “Start with a foundation of knowledgeable folks to lay the groundwork of your program. Be willing to share information and data in industry organizations like ETA, and finally, find technology platforms that will help you. There are a lot of good third-party sources – rely on those and build from there.”
In the Selling in an Evolving Marketplace session, the surcharging landscape and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it was the topic of a conversation with CardX CEO Jonathan Razi and The Strawhecker Group’s Director of Market Intelligence Alecia Muth. “There are more ISOs, agents and acquirers looking into to surcharging than ever before,” said Razi in response to what payments technology companies who are considering surcharging should be mindful of. “Compliance overhead is the first problem to solve for, including the ever-changing environment for state law. Right after that are the significant IT challenges that come with surcharging, which are critical to get right in order for surcharging programs to be effective.”
The afternoon Risk, Fraud and Security Track session included Niamh Lewis, Consultant and Mary Williams, Senior Product Manager, both from Verisk Financial | G2, who discussed coronavirus-related frauds and scams currently preying on the payments ecosystem. “In March alone, 88,000 new high-risk domain names related to the coronavirus were created, and as of May 3rd, the number of coronavirus-related scam complaints to the FTC has increased ten-fold to 35,000,” Williams said.
In the Selling in an Evolving Marketplace Track, three experts from Paysafe – Daniel Kornitzer, Chief Business Development Officer; Jan Marc Kuelper, VP, Strategic Business Development, paysafecard; Denise Tahali, SVP, Indirect Sales, U.S. Payment Processing – discussed the ways consumer preferences are changing, and how they are impacting the check-out experience and the use of alternative payment methods (APMs) in North America. “Merchants needs are changing because the consumers are changing the way that they buy and they pay,” Tahali said. Highlighting accelerated challenges and changes posed by COVID-19, Tahali added, “ISOs really need to review their markets and industries they sell to. Diversity means survival for the ISO portfolio.”
In the first session for the Payment Facilitator track, Angie Ammon, SVP Customer Experience, Finix and Randy Eckels, CEO, Clubessential Holdings discussed the role of the payment facilitation model in getting FinTechs an infrastructure that powers innovation and adaptability in today’s landscape, including how Clubessential built a payments stack that allows them to increase revenue and evolve their product to improve the user experience for their customers. “For me, it all comes back to that user experience, and as an application software provider, wanting to give the best possible user experience I can,” said Eckels. “Ultimately, all that leads to a payment transaction that we can process and provide the support and services around that, so that the customer has one company to move forward with.”
The day concluded with open show hours for attendees to continue to make essential connections through the networking app and virtual exhibit hall. In fact, over 330 meetings have already been scheduled at TRANSACT Connect – that’s one every two minutes on average during show hours. Click here to read our full guide to the virtual hall and networking at TRANSACT Connect.
Day three begins with a keynote from JJ Kieley, Vice President, Payments Consulting Group, US & LAC, at American Express at 12:30 pm ET on the virtual main stage.
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