ePay Europe interview Learning more about the value propositions of Payments as a Service

David Scott Turner, CTO at Imburse

13.04.2022 05:15 pm

Tell us about Imburse and your role within the business :

I’m the Chief Technology Officer at Imburse, and I’m responsible for the technical strategy in building the platform and engineering teams.

Why should businesses focus more (if they are not already) on payment experiences?

Offering an easy and fluid payment experience is crucial to stand out from the competition, convert new customers, and retain existing customers. It's proven that a bad payment experience leads to a massive drop-off and an overall negative experience for customers. Worst of all, customers remember these frustrations and associate them with your brand. Providing options locally and on the web is essential for a company to stand out.

How can we ensure Open Banking Enabled Services can be delivered in a user-friendly way?

Like any experience, keep it concise and straightforward. There should be as few moving parts as possible. Making it a seamless journey without having to detract from the overall primary experience is essential. For example, redirecting to a banking page and then asking the user to get up, find their card and card reader and enter a one-time pin is a detraction on the user experience and can lead to frustrations. There are more UX-friendly ways of achieving the same security that is more fluid and keeps the customer’s attention fixed on the process, such as biometrics. In a consumer world, patience to checkout and pay is low, so you must ensure that the user doesn’t need to be distracted by other actions to complete the payment.

What are the top ways e-commerce merchants can benefit from open banking payments?

Access to financial data will allow merchants to build more meaningful relationships with their customers. It also assists in other business areas that aren’t just the payment.

It can assist with accounting, payroll management, and auditing tasks. Open banking also has reduced costs compared to some of the alternative payment methods available. The other significant benefit is the diversity of credit services made available through open banking. Having access to financial data makes credit profiling much easier and faster.

What do Payments as a Service (PaaS) mean to you? And, how can PaaS provide quick and agile services based on evolving customer needs?

Payments-as-a-service is what it says on the tin; it allows you to conduct payments off the shelf. Historically, payments have been a pain point for many corporations. It’s incredibly difficult to integrate into multiple payment technologies to offer the end-user choices and go into various markets that enable more local options. Considering there is no IP in building payment platforms and services for most companies, it is arguably the most critical component in a company’s operations. Payments-as-a-service is the ability for companies to enable payments without building the infrastructure and software required to do so. It provides an abstraction for companies at an integration level, leaving them to focus on their core IP.

In your opinion, where is Open Banking headed? What does the future have in store for us in this regard?

Right now, the open banking landscape is moving forward at 100mph. It is a new technological and user experience breakthrough that will transform how we see payments in the future. I see an evolution in the payment initiation side of the customer user journey. By this, I mean better value add, such as embedded protection for goods bought, something that cards can currently give the end-user. I do see banking becoming more platform and service-based, and open banking moving into open finance. This will allow a far better experience and product offerings to consumers. It will also enable more customized products to be designed.

Major trends in retail payments have created an opportunity for more Open Banking payments in eCommerce. What factors will define the future of online payments?

The main factors driving the future of online payments would be the movement away from cash, government support for the digitalization of payments, and emerging markets. There are a lot of emerging markets that are starting to drive online e-commerce and even existing markets that still require digitalization. What would you like to learn from the EPAY EUROPE participation this year?

Understanding the challenges other companies and players are facing. Looking at the collaboration between players in the market and learning about other players’ opinions on where they see the future of payments is headed.

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