PCM Volume 2 - Issue 3: The Game of Customer Satisfaction

P CM YOUR GATEWAY TO THE WORLD OF PAYMENTS

Vol 2. Issue 3 March 2016

THE GAME OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Welcome to Vol.2 - issue 3 We are very excited to announce the release of the third Issue in 2016 of the Payments & Cards Network eMagazine. In this issue you will read about Checkout Conversion Management and how it improves e-commerce Revenue by Scott Fitzgerald, SVP Marketing at BlueSnap. It is also featuring Úna Dillon, Managing Director Europe at MRC, who discusses the “Safe Harbour Decision” and its implications for EU Merchants. Kevin Hayler, Managing Director at AnnectoUK, shows us the way to keeping customers happy and how to improve relationships.

For our Expert Interview this month we spoke with Tim Kiesewetter, Omnichannel & Payment Expert in which he comments on the current situation of the Payments industry and what the true interpretation of innovation is.

Alexander Graubner-Müller, Founder & CEO at KrediTech, talks to us about their products and how they service the industry. Keep open ears for some exciting announcements on business partnerships this year!

Finally, an overview of the hottest job openings we have at the moment. Feel like you need a change or looking for a job opportunity? Don’t hesitate and apply now.

What better way to network and get to know your peers in the industry? Check out our premium event partners and make use of the discounts we have on offer before they run out!

What is more, as a business, the magazine offers you various advertising possibilities. Want to learn more?

For any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please address them to the editors: Amir Abdin - Duc Dang -

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amir@paymentsandcardsnetwork.com duc@paymentsandcardsnetwork.com

Contents thoughtleaders

spotlight

20 6 8 14 STORIES 4 Safe Habour Decisions and its implications for EU merchants Úna Dillon examines what impact the new framework of the EU-US Privacy Shield has on merchants in the EU.

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How Checkout Conversion Management improves ecommerce Revenue

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Customer Relationship 2.0

Scott Fitzgerald outlines important aspects to maximize ecommerce sales

Kevin Hayler reveals critical steps to connect with today’s customers.

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Spotlight: Kreditech

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Hot Jobs

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Events

This time we talk to a hot startup that focuses on lending money to “unbanked” consumers with little or no credit rating.

Looking for a new role and exciting challenges in 2016?

Check out our latest job opportunities!

Here we showcase the most exciting upcoming events in the payment industry.

Expoert Interview: Learning from understanding the world outside In a Q&A session we get an insight into Tim Kiesewetter’s perspective on innovation in the payments ecosystem.

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By Úna Dillon

Thought Leaders Corner

February 25, 2016

Safe Harbor Decision and its implication for EU Merchants The European Commission and the US agreed on a new framework (EU-US Privacy Shield) for the transatlantic flow of data on the 2nd February 2016. So, what brought us to this point and what does it really mean for EU merchants?

The so-called “Safe Harbor” agreement was made by the European Commission in 2000 and allowed around 4,500 US companies to transfer data from the EU under specific data protection standards.

In 2013, a claim against Facebook was brought to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) by Austrian law student Max Schrems. He suggested, on the back of claims made by Edward Snowden regarding alleged access to certain private data

by US intelligence authorities, that Facebook (Ireland Limited) was transferring personal data to the US under circumstances where the laws and practices in the US presented no real protection against the sharing of that data.

The IDPC decided it was a matter for the European Commission. The case was finally put to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In October 2015, the ECJ found that “the existence of a Commission

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decision finding that a third country ensures an adequate level of protection of the personal data transferred cannot eliminate or even reduce the powers available to the national supervisory authorities.” In other words, the decisions made by (EU) national supervisory authorities on the adequacy of data protection measures by a third country to which their citizens’ data is transferred, override European Commission decisions made under the Safe Harbor agreement.

Once the ruling was made by the ECJ, the European Commission and US authorities set about to produce a relevant and working replacement for Safe Harbor. EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, gave a speech in Strasburg on February 2nd, where she announced the Commission had finalised negotiations with the US on a renewed and safe framework for transatlantic data flows.

Jourová promised a conclusion of “a strong and safe framework for the future of transatlantic data flows” with an arrangement that protects the fundamental rights of Europeans and ensures legal certainty. In her speech, Jourová outlined the key achievements of the negotiation:

Úna Dillon

Managing Director Europe, MRC Úna Dillon is the Managing Director of MRC Europe, responsible for providing overall leadership of the MRC’s European operations including business development, programme and educational development, member recruitment and strategic management. She has over 19 years’ experience in financial services, payment card scheme management and strategy, European policy and membership associations. Her experience includes Head of Card Services at The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO), General Manager of Laser Card Services (the Irish national debit card scheme), Board Director of the European ATM Security Team (EAST) and participant in numerous EPC (European Payments Council and EC (European Commission) working groups on payments and on financial fraud prevention matters.

1. Clear safeguards and transparency obligations on US government access to data. The Commission and the US Department of Commerce agreed to carry out an annual joint review to ensure the commitments are made and upheld.

2. Effective protection of European’s right - any citizen who considers their data has been misused under the Safe Harbour scheme will benefit from several accessible and affordable dispute resolution mechanisms.

Individuals can go to EU Data Protection Authorities, who will work together with the Federal Trade Commission to ensure that complaints by EU citizens are investigated and resolved. These cases should be resolved in a reasonable timeframe: if DPA refers a case to the US, the Department of Commerce will have a deadline to respond.

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If a case is not resolved by any of the other means, as a last resort there will be an arbitration mechanism.

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Redress possibility in the area of national security for EU citizens will be handled by an Ombudsman independent from the US intelligence services. This is a new tool specifically foreseen for this arrangement.

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Once the judicial redress act is passed, EU citizens will for the first time have access to US courts in the context of personal data being used for law enforcement purposes.

3. There will be strong obligations on companies handling the data: •

There will be regular updates and reviews of participating companies by the Department of Commerce.

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The new arrangement will be transparent and contain effective supervision mechanisms to ensure that companies follow the rules to which they agreed. If companies do not comply in practice, they face sanctions and removal from the list.

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There will be tightened conditions for onward transfers to other partners by the companies participating in the scheme.

So what should you do if you are a Merchant, based in the EU, and are currently relying on the Safe Harbor agreement to transfer personal data to the US? •

It goes without saying, consult a legal advisor qualified in international data protection.

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Subscribe to the contractual clauses produced by the European Commission.

(The EC issued a set of standard contractual clauses for the transfer of data from data controllers to data controllers, established outside of the EU/EEA and a set of standards for the transfer of data to processors outside the EU/EEA.) While the documents do not specifically describe how to implement the standards, they do refer to the rights of the consumer which must be upheld.

Compliance is a step in the right direction from a risk of litigation.

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Put a data protection agreement into place between the EU company and the US partner which specifically outlines the terms

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of the exact data being processed, how it is processed and the measures in place to protect the data.

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Brand loyalty is largely important for the growth of any merchant. With stories running every day about data hacking incidents and personal data being handed over to law enforcement authorities, consumers are becoming more aware of the merchants to whom they are willing to hand over their personal details.

They have concerns. Being able to provide valid reassurance to EU consumers that their data is being held as safely as it is in their own country is a step in the right direction for businesses conscious of their customers’ concerns.

The new EU-US Privacy Shield will likely be a catalyst for relevant merchants to start taking their EU customers’ rights very seriously.

More and more consumers are becoming aware of the issue of data protection. While there is a lot of choice in the market for most products and services, consumers will likely start to look at those merchants who offer a promise to fulfill their privacy obligations and take all necessary steps to ensure you can really be trusted with their personal data. *References: European Commission, European Court of Justice

Realistically, a US company can only really guarantee protection of its EU customers’ data by complying with the same data protection controls that are enforced on European merchants. This means compliance with the data protection legislation for all 28 EU States. National data protection legislation can vary quite a bit across the different EU States, ergo, compliance is a mammoth task.

About MRC With the vision of making commerce safe and profitable everywhere, the Merchant Risk Council is the leading global trade association for eCommerce fraud and payments professionals. The MRC provides year-round support and education to members by offering access to proprietary benchmarking reports, workshops, whitepapers, presentations and webinars. Each year the MRC hosts four conferences in the United States and Europe, with an annual flagship event in Las Vegas every spring. MRC’s membership has grown to include almost 400 of the world’s most prominent merchant organizations, over 70 industry solution provider companies and multiple law enforcement agencies in the United States and Europe. The MRC supports a wide variety of multi-channel members and industries including apparel, electronics, online gaming, ticketing and travel. MRC’s payment provider members represent the best-in-class technologies, services and solutions to reduce fraud and optimize payments.

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By Scott Fitzgerald February 20, 2016

How checkout conversion management improves ecommerce revenue Maximizing eCommerce sales is about more than a simple Payment API, it is about process excellence and Checkout Conversion Management.

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Commerce will never change more slowly than it is today. Not only are changes coming from the traditional eCommerce entrepreneur – the biggest banks, retailers and technology giants are all exerting themselves on the industry. The reasons for the pace of change may feel self-evident; here’s my list: •

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eCommerce and web design trends move fast: New concepts on what is a good aesthetic change rapidly. Only two years ago we were scolded if we put any important content “below the fold”, now the long scroll dominates UX trends. Hover animations, interactive product reviews and a litany of cool animations are raising the bar on what a consumer expects in their shopping experience – and will result in heightened expectations of the checkout flow as well.

I hear that Mobile might be important: Mobile matters to your Conversions because checkout on Mobile is not just about form factor, but it is about a new set of payment options that shift authorization from a piece of plastic to a set of credentials that leverage the cloud, biometrics and context. The pace of change here is staggering and a whole set of prognosticators are trying to call the winners as mobile wallet announcements show up every quarter.

If all you are doing for mobile is responsive design, you are at risk.

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The Payments industry is undergoing a once in a lifetime shift: The emergence of Wallets, led initially by PayPal, now contested by Apple, Google, Visa, MasterCard, AMEX and others, is changing how checkout will occur. The Wallets will enable consumer convenience, shield merchants from PCI burdens and improve authentication. Wallets are just one of the changes to payment form factors.

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Omni-channel will become Agnostic-channel as far as payments are concerned: There is a lot of talk about omnichannel. Retailers are trying to figure out how to serve their customers as they migrate on and off line – expecting a consistent experience and service.

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Fraud, fraud, fraud: The banks are frantically adapting 40-year-old processes that were designed to prevent fraud coming from in-person, point of sale transactions to eCommerce.

Each of these issues compounds the Checkout Conversion Problem by adding a dimension of change to the factors that reduce successful conversions. So – what should an eCommerce merchant do to keep ahead of change?

Plan, Do, Check, Act – or is it Define, Measure, Analyze, Control, Improve…I can never remember My Six Sigma nerds in the audience will be quick to help me get my facts straight here. Maximizing conversions in an eCommerce setting requires a thoughtful process to be set in place that looks at continuous improvement. To stay on top of this, requires a new process to be put in place – Checkout Conversion Management.

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Defining Checkout Conversion Management

to assemble and the right Payment Analytics and website data.

Checkout Conversion Management is a dedicated process that reviews the results of your checkout process, identifies potential problem areas and root causes, implements fixes and then reviews if the changes are improving results.

Our experience with merchants shows that a quarterly review of Checkout Conversion results allows for adequate data to draw real conclusions of results and the impact of changes.

Measuring Checkout Conversion – you can’t manage what you don’t’ measure: A large percentage of the merchants we encounter do not have a process for regularly evaluating their checkout friction or the success rate of their payment attempts (payment conversion rate).

Two key elements that need to be measured include: •

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Checkout Page Abandonment – Understanding the geography of those that abandon is a good clue. Lack of local language or issues around cultural expectations can cause checkout friction.

In some countries (like Spain), the shopper expects the availability of a coupon. In other countries (like Germany), you need to offer more payment options than just cards and PayPal to avoid abandonment. Each shopper saved is real revenue.

Payment Conversion Rates – A general sense of the overall success rate of payment attempts as a baseline for your business is critical. Elements like average ticket size, shopper location, subscription frequency and purchase currency all can affect the overall conversion rate.

Analyzing the Data is a multi-disciplined effort Showing a Web Designer, a CFO and a Marketer the same checkout conversion data is a great Rorschach test (btw – I see the monster from Alien).

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Web Designer: “We need a better mobile UI to ensure we don’t lose mobile shoppers” CFO: “We need to offer local currencies to ensure our customers aren’t abandoning because of cross-border fees.”

Marketer: “The customers are abandoning because we don’t have a great coupon campaign running.”

Who is right? Everybody? Nobody? The right team around the table can help analyze the data, ask questions and get to a real root cause. This requires both a regular process and the system capability

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Improvement – you have measured twice, cut already!

Once the analysis yields the results, you need the power to act. As above, actions will tend to revolve around two primary elements of your environment.

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• Improving Frictionless Checkout: Design issues like mobile optimization or minimizing clicks to checkout have a huge impact on success.

However, simpler fixes like displaying prices in local currency can improve results.

Maximizing Payment Conversions: The greatest sin of all is losing a shopper after they click the “Buy” button. Minimizing payment declines is an on-going process of reviewing success rates.

Changes as simple as dropping the price from $99 to $98 might give you a couple percentage point improvement. In other cases a more significant change of how transactions are being routed is required. Ensuring that transactions are being authorized in local currency is often worth several percentage points’ improvement on conversions. The data will tell you where you are falling short.

Understand where you are to know where you are going I believe that it is new for merchants to think of the challenges of Checkout Conversion as a distinct management process. There is great work that goes in to building your product. Another tremendous set of efforts to drive consumers to shop and make the decision to buy. This is where we see merchants spending the lion’s share of their efforts. The discipline of Checkout Conversion Management needs to be added to the lexicon and the monthly or quarterly agenda.

To get started, download the Checkout Conversion Index. It will help you think about the way you are set up today and decide if you are ready to send out that recurring meeting for the Checkout Conversion Management committee.

Scott has a strong background with a blend of marketing, sales and general management experience in payments and enterprise technology. Before coming to BlueSnap, Scott most recently worked at ACI Worldwide where he held VP-level positions in product management and marketing. During his tenure at ACI, Scott was instrumental in the company’s global rebranding and in expressing the vision and strategy for ACI Universal Payments. Prior to joining ACI, Scott held senior sales and marketing positions at CA Technologies.

Scott Fitzgerald SVP Marketing, Blue Snap

About Blue Snap BlueSnap is a global payments technology company that optimizes global, mobile checkout and drives higher payment conversions by as much as 40 percent for eCommerce merchants worldwide. Their Powered Buy Platform fuels the growth for businesses eager to serve the global consumer and take advantage of the incremental sales opportunities that they represent. Learn how BlueSnap is fulfilling its promise to eliminate friction and convert more shoppers to buyers worldwide at home.bluesnap.com

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Customer Relationship 2.0 The customer is king, or rather owning the relationship with that customer is king. To be able to leverage that relationship and add value is the key to long term growth.

Everyone wants to own the transaction but we have to define what the transaction is. I believe owning the endto-end payment transaction is critical but will become more of a commodity and is the final part of a purchase decision. Differentiation and value will come from enabling that transaction to be processed through multiple devices, or entry points, into one acquirer that provides a simple and connected view of those transactions for the retailer.

The acquiring market is still growing at a significant rate but it is today, and will be even more so tomorrow, a confusing place – the winners will simplif y payments for the merchants and consumers and make it easy to add on additional and complimentary products & services. The major challenge with this approach is in the delivery to the retailer, how to simplify a joined up modularised solution is not straightforward but I’ll come back to this point a little later.

Let’s look at the market first. According to the UK Cards Association, the value spent on credit and debit cards at UK merchants in 2014 grew by 6.4%

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(compared to 2013) to £567 billion with the total number of card purchases growing by 10% to 12 billion in the same period.

All of this shows that consumers want to be able to view and purchase goods and services in many different ways with the payment being at the heart of each transaction.

To see such significant increases for an already large and mature market is rare - so what is causing the growth?

The change in consumer behaviour is the major factor behind this, alongside industry changes such as the surge in contactless transactions (up 331% in 2014) and the emergence of Apple Pay and other NFC options.

Looking at it from a retailer’s perspective, where do they go to understand how this all works, who do they speak to and how do they start to connect with their customers, particularly at the SME level.

There are a lot of questions but relatively few answers, or at least not from one source.

Let’s look at the change in consumer behaviour and what the ‘smart phone’ brings to the market. As a consumer, we expect fast service and immediate access to knowledge and information.

Therefore in our purchasing habits, we expect to be able to buy now, at the right price and to receive the goods almost immediately.

Smart companies are starting to realise that the key is to join up the payments and enable retailers to accept payments from their customers - however they want to pay, wherever and whenever they want to purchase. The process has to be frictionless and secure whilst remaining simple, otherwise it becomes a barrier to sale.

We can now pre-order and pay for our coffee through an App. We can click & collect through our phones, we can pay for goods using a wristband or other ‘wearables’ or we can even go into a shop and pay for goods or service using our iPhone.

Contactless payments is finally taking off after launching many years ago and online transactions continue to grow.

So how will this be achieved?

The integration of channels and convergence of online and offline card processing is the way forward and the winners in the market are the ones that can enable this in a simple and cost effective way. Terminals & EPoS systems will become ‘dummy’ devices linked to a

cloud-based platform giving the retailer access to analytics, more products and a direct connection with their customers.

Working with the retailer and providing them access to the data and then supporting their marketing activity will increase business. Payment companies need to become broader in their views and in their solutions, keeping their customer at the heart of that they do.

In the UK market there are few that can do this. Acquirers focus predominantly on the payment although some have tried to offer a more joined up approach but with little success. The ISO’s tend to focus on card present transactions in the main and the PSP’s or gateways specialise in ecommerce transactions.

I believe the solution lies in providing a solution to the SME that helps them accept payments from their customers in a fast, secure and connected environment alongside service and expertise that helps guide them through the potential minefield that is commerce, both online and offline.

Consolidation has started in the UK as we have seen examples of acquirers buying Payment Service Providers (Global Payments purchase of Realex) and online gateways becoming acquirers following (Sage) as the competition hots up to control more of the value chain.

by Kevin Hayler

Managing Director, Annecto UK Ltd. With a track record of success in his 21 years in the acquiring industry, Kevin Hayler has a wealth of experience to draw from having worked for Barclaycard and First Data before moving into the ISO world with Handepay and Fidelity Payment Services. This background brings experience and a thorough understanding of the acquiring market,

The logic behind these acquisitions is sound if you operate as an acquirer, PSP or ISO but I have to question whether these moves will benefit the SME and whether they will gain or suffer from these changes.

The one thing we can safely predict is that change will happen. The winners will be the ones who can adapt with the changes or even lead the changes to bring connected, simple and secure solutions to the market.

specific knowledge of SME’s and a clear vision on whats needed to support businesses both today and tomorrow.

About annecto Annecto was launched in 2013 to connect with its customers and to help them connect with the right products and services to save money and to grow. Having helped 7,500 SME’s save money on their card processing, Annecto is now broadening its product range to deliver its vision of connecting and simplifying payments for is customers.

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learning from understanding the world outside Tim Kiesewetter studied business administration with specialisation in Market research and e-Business.

He worked for Trusted Shops the leading online seal in Europe in the B2B and B2C Service. For the EHI Retail Institute a German retailer network he worked in the research field payments as project manager online and mobile payment and KUNO a German police blacklist for stolen debit cards on POS. Also he gathered experience as a payment specialist for a Dutch company.

Tim Kiesewetter Omnichannel & Payment Expert We sat down with Payment Expert Tim Kiesewetter and had a Q& A about exciting trends in the payments ecossystem.

As a Payment Expert, what do you think is the most important aspect about Payments?

Fist of all, thank you for having me.

How we can improve our payment understanding is a good question with a simple answer - learning from the world outside! One business point for the world at large is how to innovate in order to get more products sold. To achieve that we have to understand innovations.

Peter Thiel wrote a great book with ‘Zero to One’ about innovations. But he is also a co-founder of PayPal and included some PayPal interns into his book.

Innovations always need an environment with a problem! Then someone likes to

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solve the problem and by that drives the innovation. PayPal was invented because of the problematic payment situation in the U.S. Even today there are still cheques in use in the U.S. My generation in Germany today doesn’t even know what a cheque is. On the other side of the market, the power of the credit cards prevented important innovations in the payment field. So PayPal allowed Americans to be the first to send money to other people in an easy way – the People-to-People payment (P2P) has become common. The next step was to use it as an e-wallet. We all know how successful that has been.

If you want to innovate a new payment product, search for problems that your clients have - not for improvement…

The Payments community speaks about the big internet companies and their influence on payments. What is your point of view on the topic?

I think it is important to learn from internet companies like Google.

Business guys like to play with words,

and create new terminology. If I know the topic of a presentation, then I can give you ten specialist expressions that will be included in the presentation slides. Especially in a strategic presentation, the terms – first-mover or second-mover advantage are long runners.

But the real power players like Google are Nth-movers. Before Google started their own search engine, there were already more than 100 other sites operating for the same exact purpose. The most famous one of these was Yahoo – and we all know what happened to them. Google is not a great innovator, they are just great at copying already existing concepts.

Gmail for instance, started in 2004 but the email concept by that time was already 20 years old.

Next time when your boss asks you when you provide a mobile payment system for your company ask him if he is a Google fan ;) Every where you hear that the ecommerce companies are more successful because they are faster in development etc. Is that really their

main advantage?

The ecommerce communiity is not always ahead of the game as everyone assumes!

We all know PayPal. They entered the German market in 2004. Today they are the symbol for e-payments and they’re doing a great job. In Germany they came in contact with the payment method invoice. A lot of their registered merchants ask for this method. And what do you think – when they offer invoice payment? If it was true that they would be always ahead of all other payments players then I think a normal project timeline would last maximum two years. They provided their retailers invoice services in the end of 2010.

And mainly because they make an investment in BillSAFE which provided invoice payments before.

And the second important e-wallet Amazon Payments still doesn’t even provide that service today. A lot of ecommerce companies providing invoice payment for their customers today with an own in-house solution. And most of them are really happy with that cost effective payment method.

Relax if everybody told you that you are too slow….

What about the European Payment World?

First of all, Europe is not one payment world.

The two most important topics next to product and marketing in ecommerce are logistics and payments. And both of them are still totally different from country to country in Europe. In logistics there are just a few providers like DHL that can deliver to different countries.

But for example in France (la poste) or England (parcel force) the national providers are faster and used more often by the buyers than DHL. The payment topic is very similar to that.

Of course you can run an ecommerce shop Europe-wide with just MasterCard and Visa. But although credit cards are available in every European country that doesn’t mean that you will be successful with that simple payment mix.

Why? – Because credit cards are the most used payment method in ecommerce only in France, England, Spain and Italy.

As an example in Italy, most users rather prefer a national credit card called CartaSi. But you can see that pluralism of national payments as a positive way of job guarantee if you’re the payment manager for Europe as a whole.

Identically the Point of Sale (POS) payment methods also varies nationally across Europe. In most cases the national debit cards (e.g. girocard in GER, PIN in NL, carte bancaire in FR) are more used that the international credit cards.

We will also see how PSD2 changes that this year.

What do you think are the next challenges for payment enterprises?

E-Commerce Platforms show a trend.

During my time at EHI Retail Institute I have made a study about shopping systems like Magento and Hybris. The analysis shows that on average, 50 per cent of the used shop systems are built by the retailers themselves. The other 50 per cent were utilizing solutions like Magento. But depending on the segment or products that were sold by the retailer, the share differs a lot. As an example, photo services merchants build nearly 100 per cent of the software by themselves. Everyone that has once used a photo service online configurator knows how complex the software has to be, and that’s the point. For retailers, making use of the Omnichannel concept are getting more and more technically complex. They solve this by hiring more and more technical professionals for in-house solutions. With that, payment companies lose customers automatically All in all that means just a few hightechnical enterprises will survive.

That’s why everybody invest in FinTechs…

The first-mover is not always the most successful one.

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Spotlight Think you have what it takes to start a business in a super-hot market?

PCM takes a close look at some of the most innovative and promising startup companies in the payment industry.

“IT IS ABOUT MAKING CREDIT CONSUMERFRIENDLY AND SUITABLE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY"

Alexander Graubner-Müller, CEO, Kreditech

As the founder and CEO of Kreditech, Alexander strongly believes that algorithms and statistical data are the building blocks for the next Industrial Revolution. Kreditech, one of Germany’s most data-driven FinTech companies, is a testament to that belief. Before founding Kreditech alongside Sebastian Diemer, Alexander managed engineering and product development at Rocket Internet.

Alexander also has a background in the investment and banking sectors.

How did your idea for Coinify originate and what is your mission statement?

We noticed that financial services are not available for a large percentage of the world population. Banks failed to account for the individualities of consumers: Those either do not have access to financial services at all or get unfavorable conditions that do not suit their individual situation.

What is your core product or service and what makes it different?

Kreditech is a technology-enabled financial services company that offers digital banking services with a focus on underbanked consumers across the globe. Our core products are consumer loans, which we offer to our customers conveniently through an instant, fully online application process. A loan application takes less than a few minutes and does not require any paperwork, while approvals and payout are happening automatically 24/7.

We have developed a proprietary credit scoring technology which uses big data and machine learning to process up to

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20,000 data points per application, allowing us to determine credit risk with a much higher precision than traditional creditbureau based systems, especially for thin-file customers. Our technology does not only allow us to serve credit to customers which are rejected by banks but also custom-tailor our loan offer to the individual situation of the customer.

Starting from this year we will also introduce a digital wallet and a personal finance manager to bring modern and convenient banking services to our customers. We will also use our big data capabilities to help customers manage their spendings, create savings and improve their credit score.

Founded in 2012 by Sebastian Diemer and myself, Kreditech Group has a team of over 200 passionate employees with over 40 nationalities.Since its founding, Kreditech has scored more than two million individual loan applications, using up to 20,000 data points per application. Headquartered in Hamburg we currently serve customers in our five core markets, Poland, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia and Mexico. The company is backed by prominent investors like Peter Thiel, JC Flowers, Värde Partners and Blumberg Capital and has raised more than 300m EUR in equity and debt thus far.

What kind of year do you foresee for your company and the industry as a whole?

We’re aiming to expand stronger into the field of digital banking and offer our customers a holistic platform to manage all their financial needs.

For the industry as a whole I think several macro trends will be reinforced this year and beyond:

One is disaggregation of the financial services space: Fintechs will continue to evolve and create a whole new ecosystem of specialized players, stepping into all the verticals where banks have left their consumers behind.

Highly individualized products and services will be on the rise as well. Fintechs have already shown that big data and machine learning lead to a much better understanding of their customers and allow for context-sensitive product offerings.

Ultimately we will see an awakening in data liberalization: Consumers own their data and decide who they want to share which information with in exchange for better services. As a customer, I no longer need to have a history with an institution because I can simply share my data I have accumulated across the services and products I’m using. Companies who understand to transform data into value for the customer will succeed, companies which are trying to lock in customers and their data will fail.

What are the key hurdles for growing your business in the coming years?

We are aiming at maintaining our technological leadership to stay ahead of the competition and scaling the business to continue company growth.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the industry and what will the most important opportunities be in this regard?

I think most of those are already described in the macro trends above. We at Kreditech see an opportunity in automating all processes with regards to financial services and beyond which will lead to individualized offers and custom-tailored products for the consumer.

Any recent exciting news you would like to share with the payments community?

We have some great business partnerships announcements coming up this year, stay tuned!!

The team at the Hamburg-based Headquarter

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Events Lagos - Nigeria

This is the leading exhibition showcasing payments, banking and smart card technologies and innovations. The exhibition provides a platform for you to meet new customers, build sales leads and do business. It is the perfect opportunity for African payments and banking decision makers to meet and negotiate with worldclass solution providers.

London - UK

This is the leading exhibition showcasing payments, banking and smart card technologies and innovations. The exhibition provides a platform for you to meet new customers, build sales leads and do business. It is the perfect opportunity for African payments and banking decision makers to meet and negotiate with worldclass solution providers.

Singapore

This is the only Asian conference and exhibition to curate an eco-system based platform for seamless cross border last mile fulfilment in Asia. It enables retailers, eCommerce and fulfilment companies globally to connect, share knowledge and explore business opportunities in Asia.

United States

Industry leaders are predicting a drastic climb in mobile payments over the next four years. As customers continue to demand a convenient and seamless mobile checkout process, merchants are scurrying to keep up with those demands. This unique forum is designed for senior-level executives responsible for the mobile payments strategy within their organisations.

San Diego - United States

This is the only Asian conference and exhibition to curate an eco-system based platform for seamless cross border last mile fulfilment in Asia. It enables retailers, eCommerce and fulfilment companies globally to connect, share knowledge and explore business opportunities in Asia.

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Events Las Vegas - United States

MRC Vegas is one of the largest fraud and payments events uniting online and multi-channel retailers, card networks, card issuers, law enforcement agencies and solution providers all committed to making online retail more secure. You’ll have the opportunity to network with over 1.500 guests, participate in over 65 educational sessions and much more!

Discount Code: PaCNet30

Frankfurt - Germany

#Execfintech is an invitation- / application-only fintech conference with the mission to unite Europe’s finance industry. Its interactive approach focuses on networking and building real connections between selected senior Corporate Executives, successful Startup Founders and active Investors.

Utrecht - The Netherlands

Discount Code: OBC16PCN

This is the only Asian conference and exhibition to curate an eco-system based platform for seamless cross border last mile fulfilment in Asia. It enables retailers, eCommerce and fulfilment companies globally to connect, share knowledge and explore business opportunities in Asia.

Discount Code: PCNEPS20

Brussels - Belgium

This event offers insights on key payment trends and best practices from a global perspective but with dedicated focus on the EMEA region. A 2-day conference for top delegates from banking and financial, payments and transaction industry. It is a leading discussion platform for professionals in this space.

Washington DC - United

Three simultaneous international conferences and a global exhibition that focuses on all aspects of identity technologies and the opportunities for their management in both the physical and digital worlds. It unites solutions adopters and stakeholders from around the world to explore the development and fusion of multiple advanced identity technologies.

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Events Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

This is the region’s preeminent gathering of senior executives in the telecom, banking and mobile financial services industry. Over the last 7 years Neoedge has hosted the summit in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Philippines with over 1.000 local. regional and global participants who have tackled and championed the critical issues relevant to the successful transformation of the Mobile Commerce space.

Discount Code: PCN15

London - UK

This event provides insight from industry professionals implementing forward looking operational strategies to ensure compliance and safeguard against increasing technology threats.

It is a two day forum which features interactive discussions and presentation from over 20 senior experts. It addresses, Regulatory Compliance, Capital Models and much more!

New Orleans - United States

Discount Code: XU2948PCN

This event is uniquely tailored for the retailer and payments communities. It is a highly interactive forum designed to discuss the rapidly evolving world of retail payments - from macro industry trends to digital governance and payments disruption. This event delivers truly compelling content addressing the most pressing issues facing the industry.

Discount Code: PCNDEVr20

New York - United States

This is an innovative dual-track format spanning two days, FinDEVr New York will blend fast-paced content with just the right amount of high-quality networking in order to provide maximum value to presenters and attendees. The conference focuses on the builders (developers, coders, software architects, CTOs, VPs of, Engineering, etc.) of financial, banking and payments technology.

Atlanta - United States

Bringing the world’s most innovative thinkers and industry gurus to one place, this is the most holistic eCommerce conference in the USA where senior marketing executives from eCommerce giants are gathered with brands, eCommerce startups, subscription services and marketplaces.

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