MERCHANT PAYMENTS ECOSYSTEM, THE BIGGEST EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MERCHANT PAYMENTS IS COMING TO BERLIN THIS FEBRUARY Gain fresh insights from over 150 merchant payment industry leaders in more than 40 countries within the fast-changing payment acceptance business in Berlin, February 19-21, 2019. One of the key parts of the conference agenda is dedicated to Open API, Acquiring 2.0. & PSPs business models. The European merchant payments acceptance ecosystem in 2019 can be described as dynamic and very fragmented. With hundreds of acquirers, PSPs and new entrants coming from different industry verticals, it is increasingly challenging to stay on the top. This will require new business strategies to onboard new and retain existing merchants. Both acquirers and payment service providers face pressing, strategic questions related to the selection of payment methods they support that need to be answered. European regulatory initiatives like PSD2 promoting instant payments, open banking, and data sharing have created a new payment ecosystem. Acquirers, PSPs and card schemes, threatened by the risk to be bypassed by Third Party Providers, are looking now at new business models and the roles they can play in this new ecosystem. However, the key questions remain, whether to continue playing in the traditional card acquiring space or to take full advantage of PSD2 by opting 18 | EMPIRIA GROUP
for PISP/AISP licensing? What can be done inhouse, what can be collaborated with partners for those opportunities that lie outside the expertise? Moreover, there are also questions related to the future direction of European Card Acquiring. In 2018, cards continue to grow their share of the European payments market, but the increasing scheme fees are eroding the benefits of interchange regulation. British Retail Consortium warned in 2018 that scheme fees increased 39% in 2017. Various consumer groups ask European regulators to step in to protect merchants from hidden fee increases. The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) announced in July 2018 that a market review into card-acquiring services, including a public consultation whether there is effective competition and supply of cardacquiring services. So, what’s next for card acquiring, scheme fees and the interchange fee regulation in Europe in 2019? Card acquiring 2.0., PSP World in 2019, fees evolution, new merchant payments options, open API technology, B2B payments are among the key topics to be discussed among speakers from EY, EVO Payments, ING, HPS, IKEA, ACI Worldwide, IATA, DB, Starling Bank, Konsentus, Riskified, Coriunder, ICC Cal, RBK Money, Banking Circle, Tenner, Dave Birch, Puma Pay PLH, Limonetik and many more.
