Featuring
CONTEN Contents 4
Securing Everyday Digital Payments
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The age of the digital builder has arrived.
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NTS
FinTech Magazine
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Small Things Matter: Strengthen Team Spirit in Times of a Crisis
30
24
TOP 5 Challenger Banks
34 Let Your Avatar Pay
PaymentGenes partners with Stepstone
TOP JOBS A selection of jobs in payments & FinTech by PaymentGenes. PaymentGenes Q1 2021 3
Feature Giesecke+Devrient
SECURING EVERYDAY
DIGITAL PAYMENTS How secure are your
online payments?
Ok, we are getting tired of hearing about Covid-19, and we all know the drill with lock downs, social distancing and all. Now we just want to focus on getting back to some sort of normal, even though that normal most probably will look very differently as we know it. One big change throughout 2020, that most probably will stay, is how e-commerce has been booming. And still is. Digitally savvy online shoppers have easily moved from physical stores to online, not only for shopping shoes and clothes or streaming film and music. But also, to order food, gardening utilities and beyond. But how secure is it
to shop and pay online?
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FinTech Magazine
Forrester researchers predicted that online retail would grow 18.5% in North America in 2020, reaching 20.2% overall penetration. And when looking back at the Christmas season, we noticed it was not only the usual online shoppers ramping up their game. We also saw a strong demographic shift, with the Boomers going online to buy and send gifts for the Holidays. As online buyer behavior will continue to strongly increase, online merchants need to adapt rapidly to cater the customers, and getting the payment offering right is crucial in order to offer a safe and secure online shopping experience. Cause fact is this new customer group will be an easy target for fraud and scams. And here the payment ecosystem needs to step up and educate about the risks when it comes to online shopping! As a solution to secure the online shoppers, and still getting the conversions at the checkout, Jukka Yliuntinen, Head of Digital Payment Solutions at Giesecke+Devrient (G+D), strongly promotes Card-onFile (CoF) network tokenization of payment card credentials.
E-commerce in times of COVID-19 The pandemic has driven retail online, to fulfill social distancing requirements. 48% more US consumers used digital channels to shop during the first months of the crisis than before. 1/5 of consumers in Asia Pacific went online for the first time. E-commerce sites have undergone an unprecedented global traffic increase, surpassing even Holiday season traffic peaks. Overall, they have generated almost 22 billion visits (June 2020), up from 16.07 billion global visits (January 2020). A survey conducted by Dynata for Redpoint Global, found nearly two-thirds of the adult shoppers surveyed planned to do all their Holiday shopping online. (Sources: G+D Market Intel, BCG, Accenture, Statista)
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Feature Giesecke+Devrient
“In major geographies, overall consumer payments revenue is largely driven by spending-dependent streams, especially cards. These streams account for between 66 % and 86 % share, with the rest driven by liquidity and account-based revenue”, Jukka says. “Some spending is expected to move to e-commerce where possible, but less developed e-commerce sectors will be hit significantly— some by more than 50 %, initial data suggests. Securing these transactions not only delivers increased revenue. With CoF network tokenization you will also eliminate risk and serve your customers with a happy shopping experience. “
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The rise of tokenized digital payments is also something we at G+D notice when looking at own statistics: ”Our numbers not only confirm this trend, but also are proofing an even higher impact based on the increase of customers going digital, as this is hitting all-time-high records in an accelerated pace!”, Jukka says. But how can a customer have control over who has access to this payments data? What if someone gets hold of card numbers and CVV codes, and misuses the information? Recent reports show that phishing scams are on the rise, targeting consumers primarily through email, secondarily through text messages but also thru reach out via direct phone calls. Actually, as many as 27% of consumers have been hit with pandemic-themed phishing scams, according to a survey done by TransUnion.
FinTech Magazine
How to avoid phishing scams and fake web shops • If receiving an e-mail, make sure to check out the sender. If you are unsure or if something feels strange, if there is a lot of spelling mistakes or attachments to open, assume the e-mail is fraudulent and remove it immediately. • Don’t open attachments and don’t click on links from unknown senders. • If you get contacted via phone or direct messages on social media or such, apply the same as for an e-mail. • And never ever hand put your card details, codes, passwords to a third party! • To see if an online shop is fake, click on the imprint for legal information. If this is missing out, the shop is a no go. • Google the web shop’s name and look for reviews. Or even check-up the shop on Trustpilot and alike to learn more about the online shop.
• Does the shop have certificates, proofing it is trustworthy? Click on the logos: If the certificates are real, they also link to the certifying organization for further information. • When it comes to pay, look at the checkout and validate how the payment is processed. If done via renowned payment network providers, the checkout process is most likely secured. But if suddenly you should send your card details via e-mail, or fill out a form, or pre-pay in any way, abandon the process as this might be a fraud. • And finally, use your common sense: If it is too cheap, too easy, too many logos, too many misspelled words, it is probably too good to be true. Don’t let the Grinch steal your Christmas! (Sources: G+D Market Intel)
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Feature Giesecke+Devrient
One attempt to prevent online scams is made from the EU commission, who has met and urged online merchant platforms to join forces with consumer protection authorities on tackling online consumer scams. Which are good initiatives for sure. But there are ways to include the card holders too, and let the consumer take ownership of its payment credentials. Jukka explains how this is done: “With our latest innovation, our Token Cockpit, we provide the end-customer a token management tool integrated for example in the mobile banking app, fully controlled by the end-customer itself. In this cockpit, the customer has a full overview of where the payment credentials are tokenized, and can also enable and revoke tokenized cards, for total control. This empowers end-user to deploy the mobile phone as a remote controller of payment cards for all digital channels. Then the Cockpit provides same enablers to Issuing banks in terms of web-UI, for customer support purposes.” 8 PaymentGenes Q1 2021
What is Network Tokenization? Tokenized e-commerce payments are nothing new. And many merchants use these as proprietary solutions. Thus, these are vendor dependent and are lacking some valuable features. Proprietary security tokens are designed to protect sensitive information within a merchant’s database. Thus, sensitive data is vulnerable throughout the entire payment processing chain, and not only in the merchant’s “vault”. This makes the data vulnerable, and poses for fraudsters to take hold of the same, which is shown in the rapid growth in card-not-present (CNP) fraud. Network tokenization, on the other hand, protects the card details are throughout the entire transaction lifecycle. Also, network tokens can be restricted in their usage, for example, to a specific device, merchant, transaction type or channel. And since network tokenization protects card details throughout the entire transaction lifecycle, issuers treat these types of tokenized payments as more secure than non-network tokens. For merchants this can be very beneficial, limiting fraud prevention spend, increasing authorization rates and growing customer retention and loyalty.
FinTech Magazine
But at the end of the day, when it comes to pay securely online, the whole ecosystem consisting of payment service providers, online merchants, card networks, issuers and the consumers themselves need to take control to prevail over the fraudsters. “To gain success in this increasingly complex arena, online merchants for instance will need to work with the right partners. G+D offers end-to-end solutions for e-commerce and tokenized payments, enabling security with CoF network tokenization and a state-of-the-art customer experience for increased conversion rates.” Jukka continues: “For banks to offer a
complete security solution, allowing the customers to have a transparent and fully control of their payments data, the Token Cockpit is a sophisticated way to bypass fraudsters in getting hold of and misuse card details: The customer can easily monitor where the tokenized credentials are afoot, and in a jiffy revoke or momentarily disable the same if wanted. Banks eliminate the risks of costly security breaches, the customers feel confident in how their payments are in use, and the customer relationship is strengthened. And the right merchants receive payments at the checkout. A win-win for everyone!” █ Author: Jennie Johansson Carnhamre
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Feature Giesecke+Devrient
About Jukka Yliuntinen Jukka Yliuntinen, Head of Digital Solutions at Giesecke+Devrient, is well versed in identifying and delivering high performing, innovative, and business generating payment solutions for the industry, leveraging on his over 20 years’ experience in payment and identity technologies. Jukka is also driving industry initiatives within the Mobey Forum, where he is co-chairing their Digital Identity Expert Group. And as an expert in his field, he is continuously contributing to papers as well as giving keynotes on numerous conferences world-wide on digital payment and identification topics. About Giesecke+Devrient: G+D technology is unconsciously used by billions of people every day! With more than 700 global Banks putting their trust in G+D and our offerings, we enable secure and convenient transactions for everyday usage. Our safe payments technology, elegantly combined with smooth customer experiences throughout the whole customer journey, secures the daily life use of financial services. And also creates customer obsession for our clients!
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FinTech Magazine
CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST EPISODE WITH BARNABÁS FERENCZI & RÜDIGER VOGT FROM G+D! In the sixth episode of our new podcast “Voices In Payments” our host, Diederik Klopper discusses how to innovate through crisis times as a FinTech and the acceleration of payments developments with Barnabás Ferenczi, Head of Strategy & Marketing, and Rüdiger Vogt, Head of Payments 4.0 at G+D.
Listen to the podcast to find out: • The key factors for innovation through time as a FinTech • How to maintain a high level of innovation through times of crisis & uncertainty • How to shift your focus towards solving day-to-day issues during crises whilst maintaining the longterm vision of the company • The importance of a customer-centric approach • The most significant developments in local markets that are expected to have a profound global impact • How China’s Payment Ecosystem Shapes the Future Roadmap • New payment propositions that will come in and shake up the market in the foreseeable future. PaymentGenes Q1 2021 11 11
Feature Marqeta
THE AGE OF THE DIGITAL BUILDER HAS ARRIVED.
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FinTech Magazine
I
n our modern lives, each and every one of us is surrounded by what we might term an invisible construction site. We’re talking, of course, about the ever-expanding infrastructure that forms the foundations of the fast-growing API economy.
Given this backdrop, we thought it was high time we took a look at the traits of a good digital builder and examined in-depth the tools they need to succeed — particularly when it comes to creating innovative card programmes capable of delivering in a constantly changing world.
The developers of this infrastructure are a group of unsung heroes known as digital builders. And while many may not realize it, digital builders have really come into their own in 2020. In the face of unprecedented challenges, they’ve delivered rapid, innovative solutions to meet society’s demands for new ways of living, working, and consuming.
In our white paper, titled “The age of the digital builder has arrived,” we explore critical themes including the forces driving innovation today, the growth of the API economy, and the essential relationship between the digital builder and the visionary architects of tech products. We also look at some of the obstacles that can set back aspiring digital builders, an important one of which is legacy technology.
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Feature Marqeta
THE IMPORTANCE OF OPEN API’S TO CARD PROGRAMMES For card programme owners with plans to grow and challenge incumbents, selecting a platform that has the ability to meet their needs is no easy task. Before handing a developer platform to a digital builder, the following fundamental choices must be made:
It’s fair to say that legacy platforms can prevent digital builders from reaching their true innovation potential. Modern platforms, on the other hand, open up a whole new world of possibility for digital builders. With a modern platform, a developer
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can evaluate whether the platform is capable of delivering against their product development roadmap before committing to a purchase — all on their own, without needing to engage with trained consultants and system administrators that deploy the software.
FinTech Magazine
Indeed, a key mark of a good modern platform is its ability to allow a digital builder to construct a minimum viable product within a matter of hours. Modern card issuing does exactly this. It empowers digital builders by equipping them with tools such as fully-documented open APIs, private sandboxes, and webhooks — which means the only limit on creating a truly innovative card programme is the user’s imagination. █
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SO, WHICH TOOLS CAN EMPOWER DIGITAL BUILDERS?
Sandbox
Webhooks
Open APIs
To put it another way, high performing digital builders need platforms that allow them to quickly and freely build, test, launch, and iterate card programmes on their terms.
“
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Feature Marqeta
The white paper provides digital builders of all stages with an opportunity to evaluate their position in terms of their business and proposition evolution, while offering suggestions as to how they might progress to a new level of innovation.
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To find out more, view the white paper today.
FinTech Magazine
CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST EPISODE WITH IAN JOHNSON FROM MARQETA! In the eighth episode of our new podcast “Voices In Payments” our host, Diederik Klopper discusses Modern-day open-API card issuing and what the future of payments will look like with Ian Johnson, Managing Director, Europe at Marqeta.
Listen to the podcast to find out: • Why a modern card issuing company is of such importance in a saturated market • How does the payment processing landscape look like globally from an issuing perspective • How Marqeta is simplifying the issuing side of the payments value chain • How will physical and virtual cards develop over the mid to long term? • The future of frictionless (payments) experience • Much more!
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Feature TIS
Small Things Matter Strengthen Team Spirit in Times of a Crisis by Stefan Berndt Head of HR Treasury Intelligence Solutions
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FinTech Magazine
On my flight back to Frankfurt, I was reading an article on how to lead and adapt through a crisis. It was clear to me that to involve our people in our decision-making with open communication was the way to go. After aligning with the leadership team, I took the lead in communicating to all TIS employees already on 3rd of March about the situation.
On 13th of March, TIS announced ‘Working from Home’ policy for all global locations. HR team set up communication channels for regular updates and the leadership team used Virtual Coffee Corner sessions to answer all questions anybody may have. As Head of HR, I made myself available for everybody for any concern they may have or any support they may need for working from home.
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From the first survey, we learned that home office set-up posed a challenge for many colleagues.
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T
o be honest, like many others, I first underestimated COVID-19. At the end of February 2020, I was on a business trip to visit the Sofia office. Almost nobody was a wearing mask or keeping any distance. It never occurred to me that this would soon become a regular part of our (work) lives. When a colleague expressed to me his concern to join our March Onboarding Campus for new hires, I finally realized that this virus was something bigger than I thought. It got me thinking about how this crisis could affect our people, both in Europe and in the US.
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 19
Feature TIS
Feedback is an integral part of communication. Therefore, we conducted regular pulse surveys to better understand the needs of our employees in different locations. From the first survey, we learned that home office setup posed a challenge for many colleagues. We quickly decided to offer a tax-free “Gear Your Home Office Up Allowance�. We were also aware that feeling socially isolated was impacting our people. To motivate the team to stay physically active and virtually connected, we started a planking challenge. What was first a one-time thing, soon became a popular activity. Together with professional instructors from a German insurance company, we are now offering a Virtual Activity Break every Monday, where people
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can easily jump in for some quick exercise. The pandemic also did not get in the way of our hiring plans. We proactively communicated to all candidates that we would change to remote hiring and provide video and audio support of their preference. In 2020, we hired 56 new people in total, an impressive 26% year-on-year growth. We designed a remote employee onboarding experience to help our new hires get started in the teams. For example, the 2-day Virtual TIS Onboarding Campus has received positive feedback from all our new hires. The tailor-made content helped them get in touch with key stakeholders and come to know TIS culture, processes and departments.
FinTech Magazine
My personal highlight of 2020 was our Global Virtual Christmas Dinner in December. With step-by-step instructions of a professional chef from a local cooking academy, people joined from home kitchen via ZOOM and prepared a 3-course menu dinner, and more importantly, enjoyed the dinner virtually together, from Europe and the US. In times of a crisis, small things matter. Now that the year 2021 has started with good news on vaccination, we do hope that we can meet in person again soon enough, because “people miss people the most” as one of my colleagues said. In-person contact means a lot for our happiness and well-being. In the meantime, our world is no longer the same. Together with my team and the leadership team, my priority is to design forward-looking flexible working arrangements for everyone at TIS. █
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Feature TIS
About TIS TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH), founded in Walldorf, Germany in 2010, is a global leader in managing corporate payments. The Financial Times named TIS as one of “Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies” for 2019 and 2020. Offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the TIS solution is a comprehensive, highly-scalable, cloud platform for company-wide payments and cash management. The TIS solution has been successfully used for many years in both large and medium-sized companies, including Adecco Group, Hugo Boss, Fresenius, Fugro, Lanxess, OSRAM and QIAGEN. More than 25% of DAX companies are already TIS customers. Your world of Payments. ONE Login.
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FinTech Magazine
CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST EPISODE WITH STEFAN BERNDT FROM TIS! In the fifth episode of our new podcast “Voices In Payments” our host, Diederik Klopper discusses The Future of Human Resources (HR) in Payments with Stefan Berndt, Head of HR at TIS.
Listen to the podcast to find out: • The shift in attention from an HR perspective as a result of the coronavirus • How to position your company as a potential employer in times of uncertainty • The recent shift in interest and priorities from payments professionals when joining a new company • How to anticipate the increasing importance of company culture from an HR perspective • Payments professionals are in high demand, how should you approach the hiring process to bring them in. • How to leverage ex-employee experiences to get top-notch talent in payments & finTech on board.
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FINTECH TOP 5
TOP 5
CHALLENGER
BANKS
W
e’ve witnessed rapid growth in the financial landscape over the past decade, this is in part due to significant increase in investment within the FinTech sector, which ultimately accelerated the digitalisation of our transactions. This rapid growth generated a fertile ground for only-digital challenger banks to prosper, competing with and even exceeding the value proposition of the established traditional banks, which previously saw no place for competitiveness within the banking industry. Which challenger banks have been shaping the market despite being in the game for less than a decade?
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FinTech Magazine
5. MONZO This UK based neo-bank has proven itself as one of the most promising neo-bank to have emerged from the UK. Having been founded in 2017 and serving over 4 million customers, the company has received an astonishing rating on their service quality. Monzo even expanded to catering to business banking, attracting over 600000 business customers. Customers: 4.9 million Valuation: $1.65 billion Year founded: 2017 HQ: London, UK Availability: UK, US Time to unicorn: 3.7 years Top investors: Thrive Capital Profitable? No. £113.8 million loss in 2020.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT in-app support Phone Email
Pros
• Regulated by FCA & PRA • Spendings divided into 16 different categories • A 1% interest on savings above £1,000
USP
• Top notch customer support • Offers savings accounts and travel insurance
Cons
• Daily ATM withdrawal limit £400 • International ATM withdrawal fee of 3% above £200
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 25
FINTECH TOP 5
4. N26 The digitally native, German based bank is one of the earlier challenger banks in FinTech. In a 2019 funding round, N26 raised $100M in 2020, giving it a whopping valuation of $3.5 billion. Customers: 6.5 million Valuation: $3.5 billion Year founded: 2015 HQ: Berlin, Germany Availability: Europe, US Time to unicorn: 6.2 years Top investors: Tencent, Greyhound Capital, GIC Profitable? No. $86 million loss in 2020.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT in-app support Phone Email
Pros
• Loans to selected countries (DE) • P2P payments by phone and email
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USP
• User-friendly banking products • Security • Transparency
Cons
• Limited services outside Germany
FinTech Magazine
3. REVOLUT The UK based neo bank was founded in 2015, with the objective of diversifying their offerings. Revolut currently stands at a valuation of $5.5B and catering to customers from Europe, the US and Australia. One of the only neo banks with access to cryptocurrencies to its premium customers. Customers: 13 million Valuation: $5.5 billion Year founded: 2015 HQ: London, UK Availability: Europe, US, and Australia Time to unicorn: 3.3 years Top investors: Tech Nation, Ribbit, DST Profitable? No. Breakeven in November 2020.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT 24/7 in-app chat
USP Pros
• Cryptocurrencies for premium accounts • Commision-free stock trading
Low fees banking
Cons
• No loans/overdrafts • Not accessible to emerging markets
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 27
FINTECH TOP 5
2. CHIME Undoubtedly one of the most long-standing neo banks, Chime has been acknowledged as a pioneer by many within the fintech sector. With Chime’s remarkable performance, it reached a valuation of $14.5B within 7 years of operating. Customers: 10 M Valuation: $14.5B Year founded: 2013 HQ: San Fransisco, US Availability: US Time to unicorn: 5.9 years Top investors: DST, General Atlantic, Tiger Global Profitable? Undisclosed.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT in-app support Phone
USP Simple, low cost banking
Pros
• No monthly fees • Automatic savings • No foreign transaction fees
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Cons
• No loans • Avaialable only in US
FinTech Magazine
1. NUBANK Emerging from Brazil in 2014, Nubank now has over 25 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and recently even in Colombia. Nubank has ran several successful investment round, giving it a valuation of $25B, which makes it one of the most valued banks in the Fintech landscape. Customers: 30M Valuation: $25B Year founded: 2014 HQ: São Paulo Brazil Availability: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia Time to unicorn: 4.8 years Top investors: Ribbit, Tencent, Goldman Sachs Profitable? No. BRL 95 million loss in the first half of 2020.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT Email
Social media
Live chat
FAQ support
Phone
Pros
• Free account • Free transfers for customers • Credit available
USP
• Rewards systems • User independency • No annuity fees
Cons
• Fixed withdrawal fees • Only in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 29
Interview
PARTNERS with
PaymentGenes is extremely excited to announce its partnership with Stepstone Corporate Finance+ to assist and prepare companies in the M&A process. Check out our interview with Ruud van Hoek, Jurgen van Dijk, and Ward Hagenaar (PG) to learn more about how this combination of FinTech & M&A expertise will provide unique, yet highly strategic assessments.
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FinTech Magazine
Can you introduce yourself and Stepstone Corporate Finance+? Ruud van Hoek and myself, Jurgen van Dijk founded what we call an M&A boutique. We are investment bankers which means that we help in buying or selling companies. We work with business owners, large corporations and private equity firms when they decide to acquire or dispose of a business. We consider ourselves process managers. Our service is about assisting and advising during the processes of acquiring and selling of companies. Stepstone Corporate Finance+ is a quite a newer firm which was founded circa a year ago. It is actually a coming together of three former colleagues. The + indicates we do more than just M&A and aim to help entrepreneurs at different stages. We therefore work with a team of both corporate finance and corporate growth development professionals. Our team today consists of 6 highly experienced M&A team members and 7 associate partners (functional and industrial experts).
We do this personal, professional and profitable. Stepstone Corporate Finance+ closed 5 transactions in the last half year and is an exclusive Dutch member of an international M&A network. Now also teaming up with PaymentGenes to utilize their industry knowledge in tech environments like fintech and the payments industry. How important is niche knowledge in M&A? Niche knowledge in our line of work is crucial. By combining corporate finance knowledge with industry knowledge, we’re able to find the best opportunities and we are able to know how to value the position of the company. It is essential to prove the deep knowledge of niches within the industry to gain a competitive advantage. By having niche knowledge we are able to provide specific thorough research, instead of a generic analysis.
Stepstone’s experienced team of M&A experts
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 31
Interview
Many FinTech solutions focus on a very small process or service, taking over market share from incumbents. Our industry expertise can help determine the value and scalability of the solution add hand. It is known that many M&A’s fail, and lack of industry knowledge is a major reason why they do. Usually buyer companies only look at the books of the company they are considering buying, failing to look under the hood for underlying systems and technologies that need to be integrated. Niche knowledge is what allows us to evaluate the opportunity in its vertical and take the not so visible technologies and factors into consideration.
“How ING was caught up in blind FinTech ambitions” (Article in Dutch)
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What challenges do you see in the market? Many companies are steered by a team of managers and a CEO with certain egos and aspirations who want to be present in a big part of Europe for instance, or want to be part of larger companies. So people make irrational decisions that are driven by ego and personal aspirations. This is not the best practice when leading a corporation because they are made without taking what’s best for the company into account. Another challenge common in M&A is operating in foreign markets. We also observe that many companies fail to localise their services correctly in different geographic markets. These companies are often reluctant with adapting to local requirements. We find it very important to speak to local experts from our network when the assignment involves a foreign market.
FinTech Magazine
As part of the Global FinTech Impact Foundation we have access to a global expert network that covers all areas of fintech and payments. What can a company that intends on being acquired do in advance to prepare for acquisition? Normally we do a fit for sale scan, looking if they are ready and if they are “quick wins”. And based on the scan we sometimes recommend postponing sales for a year to produce additional value in the company. We are not there for a quick deal but for a good deal. What is very important to do if a company intends on being acquired is to have a database of all your legal and important documents like contracts in English from day 1. It might be taking it to the extreme but it is essential to have the English documentation of all valuable papers and documents available. What can be expected from a collaboration between Stepstone and PaymentGenes?
overview, the technical overview, and we can combine that to create a strategic assessment. We know how competitors are acting and we know the track record of other transactions in the field. Ultimately performing a fast scan on the case to decide if it’s of interest to us to take the assignment and if we can provide value to the client. Speed and being able to provide the right assessment is the most important. A team of combined real industry experts on FinTech, payments and M&A is very unique. PaymentGenes can provide insight on the market trends and determine the attractiveness of the solution and StepStone can provide insight on the financial and M&A aspect. Needless to say, the huge network PaymentGenes has in the market also enables us to better position the companies. █ Ruud van Hoek, Jurgen van Dijk, and Ward Hagenaar (Left to Right)
Stepstone and PaymentGenes both bring different aspects of market insights and multiple views. We have the financial overview, the market position PaymentGenes Q1 2021 33
Feature AvatarPay
LET YOUR AVATAR PAY with
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FinTech Magazine
“The smartphone is becoming the new wallet.” Such has been observed by the Global Payments Report, and accurately at that. With over 3 billion smartphones in use every day, the mobile transaction market is estimated to exceed 7 trillion euros by 2027. For such a rapidly developing market, Avatar Pay offers an optimal solution: it allows any and all mobile payments in the real, off-line world to be fast, simple and secure. This means no QR codes nor any proprietary technologies such as NFC. Instead, Avatar Pay acts as a visual ID, a proxy of a mobile wallet.
To pay, the customer selects his or her Avatar, and confirms on the terminal screen the Avatar’s identity with an Avatar-Code, or biometrics as an option. Done. Hands-free. The inessential act of juggling your smartphone or card in front of the POS terminal is removed from the payment process completely. This means less queues, hassle and unnecessary stress. In addition to cash-registers, Avatar Pay can be successfully used at self-service kiosks, vending machines, gas-stations or as an ID allowing access to event locations and passage through turnstiles. The technology, at its core, promotes practicality and simplicity, for customers, merchants, service providers and banks.
The payment with Avatar Pay is like any other payment, minus one step: the user’s phone, payment card or cash never needs taking out. When the customer, prior registered with Avatar Pay, approaches a cash register or self-checkout, the customer’s Avatar appears on the POS terminal’s screen.
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Feature AvatarPay
For customers
For merchants and service providers
For customers, just owning a smartphone is enough; from there, it’s easy. Three types of apps are available to them.
For merchants and service providers the product presents similarly uncomplicated requirements. What does this involve?
• A stand-alone app can be downloaded on both Android and iOS platforms. • A merchant app with integrated Avatar Pay consumer’s SDK to offer its service. • An issuer’s mobile bank app with Avatar Pay SDK functionality.
• A touch-screen payment device with integrated Avatar Pay merchant SDK. As of late, new, state-of-the-art payment terminals have hit the market, though Avatar Pay can also function with a regular touch-screen tablet. • The Electronic Cash Register (ECR) integrated directly with the terminal/tablet or via the Avatar Pay Cloud over a simple API.
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FinTech Magazine
Create your avatar on Avatar Pay app.
Upload your payment & loyalty cards.
The Avatar Pay transactions are routed for authorization using the existing merchant payment infrastructure, either directly to the issuer, acquirer or via the Avatar Pay Cloud depending on the transaction type (SEPA Direct Debit, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer or Card Transaction). Assuming Android devices are already broadly used to accept contactless card and mobile transactions and iOS devices are presumably to come next (following Apple’s acquisition of Mobeewave), this is a good opportunity to leverage both NFC and Avatar Pay acceptance options in one place. The question of security is a priority of Avatar Pay. The product utilizes tokenization, application cryptography and strong customer authentication (SCA) to ensure utmost security at the
Confirm your avatar on in-store scanner.
Pay without touching your phone or wallet!
point of transaction. Avatar Pay, while remaining simple, is also completely private: no Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is used, while payment and loyalty data is securely stored and protected. Avatar Pay is not, unlike its name suggests, categorized as one of The Pays (Apple Pay and alike). It is not a payment method in itself, and in this lies its greatest power: its ability to enhance existing methods by providing an intuitive consumer experience - being able to pay by simply being ready to pay. Efficiently and elegantly. â–ˆ
For more information, please refer to www.avatar-pay.com or contact directly by email info@avatarpay.net.
PaymentGenes Q1 2021 37
TOP JOB TOP JOBS January 2021
Financial Director
Luxembourg, Luxembourg Get in touch with: Anna Velly +33 648494461 anna@paymentgenes.com
KYC Analyst Vienna, Austria
Java Developer USA
Get in touch with: Michael Tailleur +1 6473264818 michael@paymentgenes.com
Senior Platform Partnerships Manager Berlin, Germany
Get in touch with: Emiliano Marrero Romero +1 9152741053 emiliano@paymentgenes.com
DevOps Engineer
Amsterdam, Netherlands Get in touch with: Jonathan Pothuis +31 634261457 jonathan@paymentgenes.com
Get in touch with: Mathilde van de Loo - Berger +31 682226323 mathilde@paymentgenes.com
Digital Payment Asset Owner Paris, France
Get in touch with: Borja Gonzรกlez +31 682221386 borja@paymentgenes.com
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