TRANSACT Connect: Day 4 Recap
With keynotes taking a look at the present and future of payments for ISOs, agents, acquirers and financial institutions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus panels and sessions on PCI updates, M&A trends and new business models for ISOs, the fourth day of TRANSACT Connect brought attendees actionable insights for moving forward.
Fiserv Opening Keynote Highlights ISO, Agent Perspective
The day began with a keynote from Fiserv featuring Erik Nicholson, SVP of Partner Develop facilitating a conversation on maintaining business operations during COVID-19 between Gary Kielish, president of Systems Technology Group, Inc., Jason Williams, SVP Business Development at Fiserve, Matthew Greco, Principalof Serve First Solutions, LLC, Rich Yanek, President of CardConnect Commerce, and Justin Richardson, President at The City POS. Panelists discussed the importance of demonstrating confidence and action while we shift to our new normal, as well as sharing some of the data the industry is seeing and how technology can help mitigate in the impacts of these uncertain times.
Panelists highlighted that COVID-19’s impact on the country is accelerating the merchant timetable for integrating contactless solutions and now is the time for everyone to adapt and pivot to the new payment climate.
“Our new mantra is ‘go digital or go home,’” said Kielich. “This COVID crisis is acting as an accelerant for omnichannel for complete omnichannel solutions – online, kiosk, mobile, fixed terminal. Before COVID, online ordering was a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have going forward.”
McKinsey Partners Present New Data in Afternoon Keynote
From the virtual mainstage, Grace Klopcic and Philip Bruno, both Partners at McKinsey & Company, explored how the Coronavirus will affect payment economics, the role of payment players in rebooting the global economy, and the new normal we can expect in the payments landscape. They noted that it is important to increasingly deploy data to combat fraud and for the payments industry to expand digital-wallet solutions beyond payments using ID and transaction monitoring. Phillip Bruno stressed a theme that has been reoccurring during the day, “A digital-first mentality will be important as we go forward.”
“When you think about the next normal, if you believe we’ve really crossed the threshold to digital, what are the ways you can deliver on that consumer experience and that servicing across the commerce journey?” said Klopcic. “We firmly believe this will be a catalyst for fundamental changes in customer behavior that will be creating opportunities for players in the payments industry.”
From the Tracks: To Be or Not to Be (A PayFac), ISOs Becoming Issuers, PCI Standards and More
Afternoon track sessions kicked off at 1:30 pm with a trio of presentations across the Risk, Fraud and Security, Payments: Past, Present and Future, and Selling in an Evolving Marketplace tracks.
During the session “M&A Trends in a Pandemic World”, Jared Drieling, Senior Director of Consulting & Market Intelligence, The Strawhecker Group moderated a discussion with Greg Cohen, Managing Partner, PayXAdvisory & Operating Partner, Lovell Minnick Partners; Angela Zhang, Principal, GI Partners; and Jim Zipursky, Chairman & CEO, Corporate Finance Associates Worldwide on how the coronavirus has impacted activity and valuations. The group stressed that now is the time for companies to do their due diligence.
“Disaster is now reality. Buyers will ask these questions and will expect to see formalized plans,” stated Zipursky. The panel stressed that those who would like to be bought must now prepare, know who best to describe your business, and know the answers to questions that will most likely be asked since everyone is operating with a heightened degree of caution. ‘How did you fair during COVID?’ will be a standard due diligence question, Zhang said.
Consumer protection and law enforcement actions from federal and state regulators and agencies was the focus of a panel discussion in the Risk, Fraud and Security track featuring three partners from Venable LLP. Ellen Berge, Len Gordon and Andrew Bigart examined consumer protection initiatives and law enforcement efforts arising in the midst of the current COVID-19 environment.
When asked why state and federal regulators have brought actions against payments companies in the past, Gordon said, “From a law enforcement perspective, it’s efficient to try and challenge behavior by going after payment processors rather than playing ‘whack-a-mole’ by bringing actions against scammers. Payments are a chokepoint.” On what best practices payments companies can adapt to mitigate risk, Bigart said, “At a high-level, compliance management is about identifying your legal and regulatory requirements, making sure you’ve got policies and procedures in place to address them, and then having the right tools set-up to make sure you maintain compliance, like training and the right staff.”
IRIS CRM President Dimitri Akhrin presented a Selling in an Evolving Marketplace session in the early afternoon to take a look at sales tactics, using technology to strengthen sales teams, and to discuss new integration between IRIS CRM and Zapier.
“What I am going to teach you today is how to use technology very inexpensively to really up your merchant sales game, and make your sales team stronger by using the tools that are available to you today,” Akhrin said. “To start doing something new, you have to stop doing something old.”
Closing the Risk, Fraud and Security track was Troy Leach, SVP, Engagement Officer, at the PCI Security Standards Council. In “How PCI Security Standards Council is Responding to COVID-19,” Leach offered insight into how PCI SSC has responded to this unprecedented challenges from the pandemic, from offering guidance on conducting remote assessments to best practices on protecting payments while working remotely.
“PCI has been asking ‘how can we help?’ and reaching out to members of the PCI community to ask ‘what have you been seeing?’” Leach said. Highlighting data and anecdotes that PCI has observed which point to higher incidences of fraud and challenges with remote work, Leach added: “what we recognized has not changed is the primary mission of the PCI council, which is to educate and raise awareness of payments security, develop comprehensive security requirements and programs, stay current with evolving payment changes, provide guidance on how to address new technologies and channels, and to work with the industry to align our standards and practices.”
In “Issuing Is Saving Acquiring – How ISOs Are Becoming Issuers to Boost Revenues,” Scott Goldwaithe, President of Aliaswire and Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service, Mercator Advisory Group presented data, trends and products that can help ISOs develop a new business model to take advantage of a growing trend in SMBs to use personal credit to run their business. As many small businesses face challenges with getting approved for small business credit cards, ISOs are stepping in with innovative issuing programs to help their merchants improve their overall cash flow, Goldwaithe noted, and while this is a benefit to their merchants, ISOs also benefit from a new revenue stream.
“We enable ISOs and acquirers to become small business card issuers,” said Goldwaithe. “We’ve solved credit underwriting for small business” because ISOs have insight into payment volumes.
“To Be or Not To Be a Payment Facilitator?” was the question posed by RPY Innovations in the final session of the Payment Facilitation track at TRANSACT Connect. In a panel moderated by Caroline Hometh, Managing Partner, RPY Innovations, panelists Todd Ablowitz, CEO and Co-Founder, Infinicept; Carla Erlick, Senior Vice-President, ISV Channel, Paysafe; Rod Hometh, Partner, RPY Innovations and Tom Tucker, Vice President, Fiserv discussed the deployment of the payment facilitation model, how it can be done, and whether it’s always the best decision for a payments technology business.
While the model has been an option in place over several years, some organizations may see it as a viable path, while others may not be willing to take on the additional work in terms of compliance and risk issues. Software companies may not be as versed and knowledgeable of the complexity of the payments ecosystem and that’s a leading factor to consider when becoming a payment facilitator.
“Companies that are looking to become a payment facilitator, they really need to be ready to invest, they need to have the right technology, and they need to be ready to hire the right people,” said Erlick.
TRANSACT Connect has brought together the entire payments technology ecosystem for a week of thought-leadership and plenty of networking. The TRANSACT Connect platform will close on Friday, May 15 at 8PM ET. Click here for show floor hours tomorrow. Jodie Kelley, ETA CEO, and Chris Lee, CEO of BillingTree and ETA Board President, will give the closing keynote at 12:30 pm ET.
Thank you to the over 700 attendees who participated in this event, attended hundreds of meetings through our networking app, and joined us for several days of terrific content