PaymentEye met Mike Camerling, CPO at AEVI, at last year’s Money 20/20 in Las Vegas to get his take on the year’s trends, the evolution of B2B space and to see what the future holds for the payments industry.
As consumers become more tech savvy and mobile adoption rates continue to creep up, merchants’ needs are evolving – particularly when it comes to handling Face to Face (F2F) payment transactions and day-to-day business operations. Each business is different, so they need technology that offers flexibility and, more importantly, choice.
Mobile first
In news that will surprise few in the payments industry, the popularity of mobile payments is increasing. 2016 saw a 42% rise in mobile payments, with this trend showing no sign of slowing into 2017. Online retailer Amazon recently announced that 32% of transactions on their new payment platform Pay With Amazon were from a mobile. To stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing financial world, banks and merchant acquirers must be open to innovation, says Mike Camerling, Chief Product Officer of AEVI.
The German fintech startup has created a payments platform with an ‘open ecosystem’ – a global marketplace that gives merchants and consumers access to ‘value-added apps and services’ (VAAS), and also allows app developers the opportunity to enter the marketplace, Camerling says.
However, reconciling this open approach with the stringent security constraints of the financial world wasn’t easy, notes Camerling: “It has taken a long time. Getting the first capable devices out there was a major challenge. When you combine Android app developers coming in from everywhere with secure payments, you could see there would be conflict initially. So to create the solutions we do, and those of the other parties… it took a while to mature.”
Apps and services
VAAS could benefit the relationship between banks and SMEs. The addition of VAAS could allow banks to offer more complete payment solutions, encouraging SMEs to adopt electronic payment methods as the norm. By 2017 mobile POS will account for around 46% of all installed POS systems. With the VAAS ecosystem in place, banks will be able to offer their smaller merchants new and innovative ways to compete with much larger competitors.
“We think the payment industry will become very app driven,” says Camerling. “Merchant acquirers will be able to create an all-purpose business tool that is tailored accordingly to their merchant’s needs, whilst at the same time ensuring that their brand becomes the focal point of the merchant’s attention.”
For now, it seems the payments industry disruptors are here to stay. But the question remains: Will banks and merchant acquirers embrace the fintech revolution or risk getting left behind?
Watch the full video interview here.
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