PCM Vol.2 - Issue 1
Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!
Leverage SEO-optimized Flipbooks, powerful backlinks, and multimedia content to professionally showcase your products and significantly increase your reach.
Exciting stories about developments in the payments world 2016 | + Deep insight into omni-channel strategies<br />
<strong>PCM</strong><br />
Vol 1. <strong>Issue</strong> 7<br />
Dec. 2015<br />
YOUR GATEWAY TO THE WORLD OF PAYMENTS<br />
Blockchain<br />
awakens
Welcome to <strong>Vol.2</strong> - issue 1<br />
You are reading the first issue of the Payments & Cards Magazine in 2016. In order<br />
to keep our clients, associates, subscribers and all payments professionals in the<br />
loop, we have decided to create a monthly magazine.<br />
The first issue of 2016 features an expert interview on omni-channel payments,<br />
thought leader articles, top jobs and more! We’re also introducing a new section<br />
in this issue where we present and discuss insightful infographics provided by our<br />
partners.<br />
The magazine is also a good way for you to keep in touch with what is happening<br />
in the Payments world as well as like minded professionals. If you haven’t checked<br />
in with us lately, we think you will be surprised and excited about all the wonderful<br />
things happening in the industry.We hope to hear from you soon, and we welcome<br />
your feedback!<br />
Throughout each issue, there will be descriptions and lists of events within the<br />
Payments industry happening this month, as well as announcements and the latest<br />
developments & partnerships. If you are a thought leader and would like to be<br />
featured or present your thoughts, please get in touch.<br />
What is more, as a business, the magazine offers you various advertising<br />
possibilities. Want to learn more? Just contact us!<br />
For any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please address them to the editors:<br />
Amir Abdin - amir@paymentsandcardsnetwork.com<br />
Duc Dang - duc@paymentsandcardsnetwork.com<br />
The Payments & Cards Network team wishes you good reading!<br />
002
Letter from the CEO<br />
2015 was a year of change and the beginning of accelerated consolidation in the Payments & Cards<br />
Industry.<br />
We saw some very large processors acquired and new initiatives from innovative merchants as they<br />
build in house payment teams as well as their own platforms.<br />
The Payments & Cards Network was able to strengthen existing relationships with large, international<br />
players as well as gain new clients both on the Merchant, Consulting, Scheme & Processing sides of<br />
the industry.<br />
From a talent perspective, it’s impossible to work with every single business involved in payments so<br />
we have strategically chosen to work with select companies who share their values with us and vice<br />
versa. With this strategy in mind, the Payments & Cards Network has grown 40% as a business in<br />
2015 which has led to an increase of 62% in revenues.<br />
We are very proud to announce our new locations as London and soon to be US offices which will<br />
bolster our offering across the world as we maintain our goal of being the number one global supplier<br />
of talent to the Payments & Cards Industry.<br />
With the increased uncertainty of the political climate in South Africa, despite a very successful year<br />
for us, we have taken the decision to cease our operations in the region and will continue servicing<br />
South Africa & Sub Sahara remotely from our EMEA HQ in Amsterdam. This has not been an easy<br />
decision to make but in the interest of servicing our existing customers globally, we feel resources<br />
can be put to better use elsewhere.<br />
PCN also launched Payment.jobs this year which is the only truly international job board dedicated<br />
to the industry. Early results are good but such as any board of this nature, it will take time to gain<br />
full traction. As every year, it is most important to reflect on goals unrealized and realized but most<br />
importantly the people involved in the success.<br />
It has been our mission from day one to hire individuals who are capable of taking our business to the<br />
next level and work as a team that not only contributes ongoing value to the industry but are proud to<br />
work along side each other. Perhaps our greatest achievement this year has been the continuation of<br />
this success and hiring some very talented individuals who have been able to hit the ground running<br />
and already add to the sterling reputation of our company.<br />
As CEO I could not be happier to be working alongside these individuals and look forward to<br />
welcoming additional members of the team in 2016.<br />
In closing I would like to thank our customers who have supported us from day one as well as new<br />
clients who have just started working with us. We will be issuing our annual quality survey in Q2 of<br />
2016 and I trust results will be even an improvement of 2015.<br />
See you in 2016 and we look forward to seeing you in the network.<br />
Jordan Lawrence<br />
CEO<br />
Payments & Cards Network<br />
003
Contents<br />
thoughtleaders<br />
spotlight<br />
21<br />
5<br />
13<br />
STORIES<br />
5<br />
8<br />
10<br />
13<br />
15<br />
Thought Leaders: Mobile payments plus loyalty incentives<br />
Jide Akindele continues the series about the development of the mobile<br />
payments industry in a promising part of Africa.<br />
Infographic: The State of Fintech Investment in Africa<br />
mondato looks at the opportunities in the African Fintech market.<br />
Thought Leaders: Southeast Asia: 34.5 billion e-commerce future<br />
Aung Kyaw Moe discusses the e-commerce potential in Southeast Asia and<br />
the reasons why the ASEAN powerhouse looks promising.<br />
Thought Leaders: Forget Uber moments, Are we witnessing a napster moment?<br />
Mark Taylor gives us an insight into the perspectives and challenges of the<br />
ever more relevant cryptocurrencies.<br />
Expoert Interview: A roadmap to omni-channel payments<br />
Juspal Manic dives into the world of omni-channel payments and discusses<br />
critical factors when designing this new type of strategy.<br />
15<br />
18<br />
21<br />
24<br />
25<br />
Infographic: Trends in payments solutions<br />
PAYTOO shows us what impact the growth<br />
in mobile phone usage has on the payments<br />
world.<br />
Spotlight: Toast<br />
This time we talk to the Asian P2P money<br />
transfer application maker of Toast.<br />
Hot Jobs<br />
Looking for a new role and exciting challenges<br />
in 2016? Check out our latest job opportunities!<br />
Events<br />
Here we showcase the most exciting upcoming<br />
events in the payment industry.<br />
004
By Jide Akindele<br />
January 8, 2016<br />
Thought Leaders Corner<br />
global<br />
business<br />
This is the fourth edition of Jide Akindele’s<br />
series focusing on the developments in the<br />
payment market in Sub-Sahara Africa<br />
New wave of coming<br />
mobile payments plus loyalty incentives<br />
© SES S.A<br />
2015 was as good year for mobile payments<br />
across the globe. Africa still leads the way in terms<br />
of subscriber adoption globally, however we<br />
have seen various schemes of mobile payments<br />
across the world in different forms, (such as) card<br />
linked, closed loop which currently dominates the<br />
various ecosystems in the battle for dominance.<br />
In 2016 we are of the opinion that the next wave<br />
of mobile payment developments would be in<br />
the infusion of content loyalty schemes side by<br />
side with consumer’s payments. This means<br />
that there would be closer collaboration with<br />
merchants and mobile wallet providers and<br />
PSP’s on the technology side. This, however, will<br />
raise various questions on how and which part<br />
of the consumer’s data is shared, and by what<br />
party, within the value chain taking into account<br />
compliance, regulation and data protection.<br />
Having said that, once the modalities have been<br />
sorted, the advantages would become clearer if<br />
consumer data is profiled in a meaningful way.<br />
This would avoid the wasteful scattered approach<br />
of blasting advertising messages that are not well<br />
targeted. With the linked incentives, purchase<br />
patterns can be established, and bring together<br />
value merchants and processors equally,<br />
benefiting the consumer. This is particularly<br />
important for the Sub-Sahara African markets<br />
where there is a need for cohesion in consumer<br />
data gathering for analytics.<br />
Most consumers are incentivised by special<br />
rewards, offers and discounts associated with<br />
their Mobile app. This is also the case for Mobile<br />
wallet users (Smart phone App users), but not<br />
005
forgetting feature phone users (USSD driven) who<br />
equally participate in mobile commerce, except<br />
not via the internet and can also receive such<br />
incentives via SMS if they do not have access to<br />
the internet. For the USSD users incentives would<br />
be more off-line driven incentives typically driving<br />
them to brick and mortar stores.<br />
According to some live case studies, particularly<br />
in Sub-Sahara Africa, where off-line incentive<br />
programmes associated with mobile wallets took<br />
place over a sixth month period, have shown that<br />
over the campaign period mobile wallet usage<br />
increased transaction payments exponentially.<br />
It was also observed that new adopters also<br />
joined the service due to the incentive offerings,<br />
in addition the retention rates remained<br />
exceptionally good with a reduction of inactive<br />
accounts. We have seen similar case studies in the<br />
USA and it shows this new wave to be an effective<br />
way of maintaining consumer satisfaction as well<br />
as increasing loyalty, transaction growth and<br />
adoption.<br />
Prediction for 2016, Sub-Sahara Africa will see<br />
more merchants accepting mobile payments<br />
due to transaction growth. We expect known<br />
international brands to start testing the waters<br />
in the African markets in various forms in the<br />
m-commerce space, and expect consumer micro<br />
payment thresholds to increase as they gain more<br />
confidence in the payment medium.<br />
MMIT, Mobile Media Info Tech, is a mobile payment processor with a mission to<br />
revolutionize the mobile payment process.<br />
006<br />
MMIT focuses on the Sub-Sahara Africa market and partners with financial institutions<br />
and international merchants to provide value added services to mobile wallet providers<br />
and users. Please visit MMIT at www.mmitonline.com.<br />
Jide Akindele, Founder,<br />
MMIT<br />
Jide is a visionary entrepreneur with a deep and wide<br />
knowledge of technologies based in the mobile money and<br />
payment transaction space. Mr. Akindele has held various<br />
directorship positions for companies in West Africa and has<br />
worked in USA, Nigeria and the UK since 2007.
eCommerce<br />
Africa Confex<br />
WATCH OUR VIDEO<br />
commerce<br />
Africa<br />
Follow @eCommerceConfex and @KineticEventsSA on<br />
Twitter for daily updates and news feeds.<br />
Advisory Panel<br />
RAPHAEL AFAEDOR<br />
EMILIAN POPA<br />
VINNY LINGHAM<br />
17 & 18 FEBRUARY 2016 | THE CTICC, CAPE TOWN<br />
WWW.ECOMMERCE-AFRICA.COM<br />
JOE OKLEBERRY<br />
SIMDUL SHAGAYA<br />
CAREN GENTHNER-KAPPESZ<br />
Sponsors,Exhibitors & Partners<br />
DiGAME<br />
Co-Founder, Jumia/CEO &<br />
Co-Founder, Supermart<br />
Principle, Digital Growth<br />
Africa & Middle East<br />
Co-Founder and CEO,<br />
Gyft<br />
Internet Strategist,<br />
Naspers<br />
Founder and CEO,<br />
Konga Online Shopping<br />
CEO,<br />
MIH/ Naspers<br />
An award winning and<br />
celebrated businessman in<br />
Africa, Raphael heads up the<br />
biggest online retail platform<br />
in Nigeria, Supermart and has<br />
taken the African business<br />
scene by storm. His previous<br />
work with one of the biggest<br />
online companies, Jumnia,<br />
launched him to success, and<br />
cultivated his passion for Africa<br />
and its development.<br />
Emilian’s passion for<br />
eCommerce and online<br />
trends shines through when<br />
he speaks. He describes<br />
himself as an eCommerce<br />
and global entrepreneur and<br />
has headed up some of the<br />
biggest companies in South<br />
Africa, as well as the rest of<br />
the world including Rocket<br />
Internet, Groupon and Zando<br />
among others. He is currently<br />
living between South Africa<br />
and the Middle East with his<br />
investment initiatives.<br />
Most will instantly recognise<br />
Vinny straight from the small<br />
screen and his position on<br />
South Africa’s Dragons Den,<br />
and others will know him<br />
as the co-founder of some<br />
of the biggest initiatives in<br />
online tech in South Africa:<br />
Clicks2Customers, Gyft and<br />
Silicon Cape Initiative. He<br />
has since moved to the actual<br />
Silcon Valley and is rubbing<br />
shoulders with big names<br />
like Richard Branson among<br />
others.<br />
It has been said that anything<br />
that this man shares will be<br />
deep and thought provoking.<br />
Joe used to be Mary Meeker’s<br />
right hand man, and was part<br />
of the team that took LinkedIn<br />
and MailRu public. Described<br />
as the most experienced man<br />
in internet in Africa, his skills<br />
and expertise are in high<br />
demand and he was pounced<br />
on by Naspers to hold a<br />
position here in Cape Town.<br />
Sim is the Founder and<br />
Executive Chairman of<br />
DealDey Limited. He has over<br />
13 years experience in New<br />
Media & Investment Banking<br />
and worked with leaders such<br />
as MicroStrategy, Lucent<br />
Technologies and Real<br />
Networks. Sim also served<br />
as the Africa lead for Google.<br />
He graduated from George<br />
Washington University,<br />
Dartmouth College & holds an<br />
MBA from Harvard Business<br />
School.<br />
Former CEO of Kalahari.<br />
com, Caren was relocated<br />
to Cape Town from Berlin,<br />
with prior roles including<br />
a nine year stint at eBay<br />
as general manager for<br />
shopping.com Germany, and<br />
as a director and GM for eBay<br />
Express Germany. Caren<br />
has also worked as COO<br />
at brands4friends, an eBay<br />
subsidiary in Germany.<br />
The eCommerce Africa Confex gathers 1500+ Exhibition Visitors, 70+ Sponsors & Exhibitors, 500+ Conference<br />
Delegates and 90+ Guest speakers.<br />
Connecting the regions’ leading merchants; major retailers; brands; developers; designers and eCommerce<br />
experts, the summit is focused on exchanging inspired and innovative ideas, discussing emerging trends and<br />
making lasting connections.<br />
Organisers, Kinetic, have secured some of the best global solution providers who are ready to provide the African<br />
continent with great products and services at the most exclusive and by far the largest Commerce gathering on<br />
the African continent.<br />
To get involved with the show, fast track your sales or even network with industry leaders;<br />
Click here to get your free expo pass OR Register for a full delegate pass at 15% discount.<br />
For general enquiries and/or information about sponsorship, contact marcia@kineticevents.net<br />
007
Infographic description<br />
Global investment in financial technology continues to increase exponentially, confirming that<br />
“fintech” is on the rise. While the majority of funding has been dolled out to North America<br />
and Europe, the most unmet need for innovative digital financial services lies in emerging<br />
markets. The bottom of the pyramind (BoP) in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to<br />
traditional financial services, making consumers more open to new technologies. Many fairweather<br />
investors are reticent to engage entrepreneurs targeting the poorest members of<br />
the population, which in turn, creates more value for those who do invest. Beyond the BoP,<br />
Africa’s economic growth, increasing middle-class and Internet penetration makes her a worthy<br />
candidate for investment. Contrary to the prevailing opportunity, less than 1% of private equity<br />
and venture capital funding went to Africa in 2015.<br />
To learn more about opportunities for investing in African fintech,<br />
please visit www.mondato.com<br />
About mondato<br />
Mondato is a boutique consultancy specializing in the provision of strategic,<br />
commercial and operational support across the mobile finance and commerce<br />
(MFC) ecosystem. Established in 2008 on a foundation of years of experience in the<br />
telecommunications, technology and financial sectors, Mondato possesses a unique<br />
009
By Aung Kyaw Moe<br />
Dezember 29, 2015<br />
Southeast Asia’s $34.5 billion e-commerce future<br />
A<br />
rose by any other name,<br />
according to Shakespeare,<br />
would smell as sweet. And<br />
whether the ten-member<br />
cluster of nations surrounded by<br />
economic powerhouses Australia,<br />
China and India goes by the Association<br />
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),<br />
or simply as Southeast Asia (SEA),<br />
the region’s star is set to shine.<br />
Comprising ten member nations (Brunei,<br />
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,<br />
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore,<br />
Thailand and Vietnam), ASEAN looks<br />
to become an economic powerhouse<br />
in its own right. It is home to around<br />
625 million people, 744 million mobile<br />
devices, nearly 200 million Internet<br />
users and a GDP of over US$2.6 trillion.<br />
It will also boast a 400 million-strong<br />
middle class by 2020 (Nielsen).<br />
Amid the backdrop of political rhetoric<br />
transforming into economic reality,<br />
McKinsey attributes ASEAN’s rise to<br />
three powerful socio-economic trends<br />
does it check out?<br />
– rapid economic growth, urbanization<br />
and technology adoption (notably<br />
Internet penetration and mobile<br />
technologies). Moreover, with the<br />
wheels in motion for a unified ASEAN<br />
Economic Community (AEC) - set to<br />
come into force as early as end-2015 –<br />
the region has embarked on perhaps its<br />
most exciting phase of integration and<br />
cross border trade in the association’s<br />
48 year history. Together these factors<br />
are transforming the region, its people<br />
and its economies, with e-commerce<br />
and m-commerce leading the way.<br />
Building momentum in a fragmented<br />
region<br />
With rising online connectivity, with<br />
improvements in financial, logistical,<br />
security and alternative payment<br />
infrastructures, with more and more<br />
e-commerce M&As and with the AEC<br />
kicking in, ASEAN is ripe with potential.<br />
Frost & Sullivan estimates the B2C<br />
e-commerce compound annual growth<br />
rate (CAGR) of Indonesia, Malaysia,<br />
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and<br />
Vietnam at 37.6 percent from 2013<br />
to 2018, growing from US$7 billion to<br />
US$34.5 billion – a number that would<br />
be even higher if we were to include the<br />
remaining five member states.<br />
ASEAN holds such promise for<br />
governments, businesses and<br />
investors for a number of reasons:<br />
Online connectivity<br />
Southeast Asia comprises 744<br />
million internet connections, with 119<br />
mobile subscriptions per 100 people<br />
(WeAreSocial, 2015). It already accounts<br />
for 7% of global internet users, catching<br />
up to Western Europe (12%) and the US<br />
(11%). Internet penetration has risen<br />
414% in Cambodia, 346% in Myanmar,<br />
47% in Thailand – year-on-year – in<br />
FY2014. The average person in the<br />
Philippines spends 6.3 hours a day<br />
online, in Thailand 5.5 hours, in Vietnam<br />
5.2 hours, in Indonesia 5.1 hours and in<br />
Singapore 4.7 hours. These are ahead of<br />
China’s 3.9 hours, South Korea’s 3.4 hours<br />
and Japan’s 3.1 hours. The proliferation<br />
010
of tablets, phablets, smartphones and<br />
3G – even 4G – services will play a role<br />
in further driving internet penetration<br />
rates, as technological advances<br />
continue to make devices affordable<br />
even to the less-affluent, key to enabling<br />
the region’s e-commerce future.<br />
Financial infrastructure<br />
What’s remarkable about the 2014<br />
US$7 billion estimate of ASEAN’s B2C<br />
e-commerce is that it has achieved this<br />
despite a financial infrastructure that<br />
has a lot more potential – and need –<br />
to grow. An estimated 70 percent of<br />
SEA residents lack access to traditional<br />
banking services (McKinsey). Moreover,<br />
with credit card penetration in some<br />
markets below 5 percent, e-commerce<br />
in ASEAN is understandably<br />
underdeveloped. Consequentially,<br />
SEA online retail accounts for around<br />
1 percent to 2 percent of total retail<br />
sales, compared to China, at 11 percent<br />
(FT Confidential Research). However<br />
this figure for China was, as recently as<br />
2010, 2.5 percent – a growth trajectory<br />
many anticipate SEA will follow in the<br />
coming years, against this backdrop of<br />
rapidly evolving financial infrastructure.<br />
Logistical infrastructure<br />
Logistics and ecommerce have so far<br />
proven to sometimes be a mismatch for<br />
Southeast Asian shoppers, as only a small<br />
proportion receive free delivery. This<br />
means shoppers are incurring logistical<br />
costs that retailers would usually, in a<br />
competitive market, help to absorb.<br />
Southeast Asia’s landscape poses a<br />
unique set of challenges that is slowing<br />
the momentum e-commerce should<br />
be seeing. These include late delivery,<br />
damaged or lost packages, the prevailing<br />
practise of cash-on delivery, lengthy<br />
return procedures, and a lack of special<br />
services such as trial or installation –<br />
particularly when given the geographical<br />
barrier between buyer and seller.<br />
In response, firms can either build<br />
their logistics systems, or partner with<br />
logistics companies. China’s Alibaba has,<br />
for example, acquired a 14.51% stake<br />
in Singapore Post, which will spend<br />
US$145 million on building a regional<br />
ecommerce hub. Alibaba’s ecommerce<br />
site AliExpress is seeing tremendous<br />
growth across the region. Meanwhile<br />
Uber has partnered LBC Express in<br />
the Philippines to deliver Christmas<br />
presents on-demand. And that’s the<br />
role private and public sector actors with<br />
deeper pockets play – the ‘uberfication’<br />
of the region’s under-developed<br />
logistical sector, in turn building<br />
intra and cross-border commerce.<br />
Transaction Security<br />
Rapid progress has been made in the<br />
domain of payment infrastructure and<br />
online security. Consumers are, however,<br />
put off from buying online – the Financial<br />
Times recently estimated that 90 per<br />
cent of visits to ecommerce sites do<br />
not result in sales. Part of the reason is<br />
because e-retailers are bound by Caveat<br />
Venditor, where governments impose<br />
strict regulations to hamper illegal<br />
money laundering operations across<br />
borders, indirectly turning off shoppers,<br />
who are required to provide credit card<br />
information to transact. Consequentially,<br />
AT Kearney estimates that 67% of<br />
digital buyers in the Philippines, 62%<br />
in Thailand, 60% in Indonesia, 55% in<br />
Vietnam, 52% in Malaysia do not trust<br />
giving their card information online –<br />
compared to the global average of 49%.<br />
While this can be overcome as<br />
governments promote non-cash<br />
transactions and coordinated<br />
e-payment regulations, security<br />
laws needs to catch up with what’s<br />
commonplace in developed markets.<br />
ASEAN countries are responding,<br />
developing and enforcing security laws<br />
and regulations for ecommerce data<br />
protection and electronic transactions.<br />
Singapore’s Monetary Authority of<br />
Singapore (MAS) has, for example,<br />
made the 2-factor authentication (2Fa)<br />
process mandatory for any transaction,<br />
local or overseas. The movement<br />
towards intra-regional coordination of<br />
shared cybersecurity, best practices,<br />
and legislative frameworks will allay<br />
these fears, boosting ecommerce.<br />
Alternative Payments<br />
E-commerce requires a healthy and<br />
robust payments infrastructure,<br />
together with integrated innovations,<br />
to overcome deficiencies in a region<br />
underserved by traditional banking. In<br />
SEA, where well over 400 million people<br />
are unbanked, compounded by existing<br />
security concerns among digital buyers,<br />
alternative payment solutions are rising<br />
in importance, building the robustness of<br />
the payments infrastructure. They are a<br />
necessary option for businesses to reach<br />
out to un-banked customers, through<br />
new ways to complete transactions<br />
via ATMs, online banking and over the<br />
counter payments. Alternative payment<br />
solutions will also play a facilitating role<br />
in converting unbanked to banked users.<br />
Rise in M&As<br />
Southeast Asia is already drawing<br />
global e-commerce players, including<br />
Germany’s Rocket Internet, with<br />
investments in online marketplace<br />
Lazada along with online fashion retailer<br />
Zalora, Japan’s Rakuten, Softbank, and<br />
China’s Alibaba, JD.com and Tencent.<br />
The pace of e-commerce and payment<br />
innovation in Southeast Asia is certain<br />
to accelerate. Rising investments are<br />
expected over the next few months,<br />
developing the region’s e-commerce<br />
through investment, acquisition<br />
and subsequent consolidation.<br />
Advent of AEC<br />
The word “fragmented” is used<br />
consistently by economists,<br />
politicians and business visionaries<br />
alike to characterize ASEAN – not<br />
without reason. With ten countries,<br />
ten languages, ten currencies and<br />
economies with varying (often too high)<br />
levels of economic nationalism, ASEAN is<br />
indeed made up of ten very unique parts.<br />
Some are highly developed – Singapore,<br />
for example, has a 2014 per capita GDP<br />
of $60,410 (IMF), while Myanmar’s was<br />
$1,405. Singapore presents one of the<br />
most friendly business environments<br />
in the world, whereas Myanmar was,<br />
as recently as 2013, twinned with<br />
Sudan in an article by The Economist.<br />
For AEC to hold any meaning, even in<br />
less erudite circles, it would need to<br />
address the notion of piecing some of<br />
these fragments together, by opening<br />
up cross-border trade. And then, there’s<br />
the bigger context – where ASEAN fits<br />
in the broader Asia-Pacific narrative.<br />
011
Love thy neighbour<br />
ASEAN’s awakening lies not only in more<br />
efficient and transparent intra-regional<br />
trade, but also in doing business with its<br />
neighbours, particularly China.<br />
That’s the biggest challenge, and even<br />
greater opportunity, one which is<br />
particularly attributable to e-commerce.<br />
China’s trade with ASEAN is estimated<br />
at US$224.38 billion in H1 2015, up<br />
1.6% year-on-year. More crucially, since<br />
2010, over sixty percent of its outbound<br />
investment has been into ASEAN, with<br />
internet and e-commerce cited as key<br />
areas of interest.<br />
With better infrastructure, and with<br />
trade efficiencies, e-commerce has the<br />
potential to drive the 21st century’s<br />
rendition of the Maritime Silk Road.<br />
ASEAN’s future is bright!<br />
by Aung Kyaw Moe<br />
Founder and Group CEO , 2C2P<br />
Aung is the founder and Group CEO of 2C2P, a Southeast Asian<br />
payment services company revolutionizing payments for financial<br />
institutions, ecommerce and mcommerce merchants and consumers<br />
across Southeast Asia. He hails from Myanmar, but has been based<br />
in Singapore and Thailand for the past fifteen years.<br />
About 2C2P<br />
2C2P (Cash and Card Payment Processor) is a leading Southeast Asian comprehensive payment services<br />
provider, transforming millions of everyday payments across Asia. The company offers a number of services<br />
tailored for the needs of ecommerce and mcommerce merchants, banks and financial institutions of any size.<br />
012
By Mark Taylor<br />
Dezember 24, 2015<br />
© pixabay<br />
Forget Uber Moments, Are We Witnessing A Napster Moment?<br />
A popular analogy bouncing around financial services is<br />
how the emergence of blockchain technology is similar<br />
to the invention of the internet and how that disrupted,<br />
well, everything.<br />
Off the top of my head; executives at Barclays; the founder<br />
of Ripple, Chris Larsen; the managing director of R3, Charley<br />
Cooper, who currently has 43 banks working together; and<br />
Goldman Sachs have all made the comparison.<br />
This fantastic new-fangled system will not only improve<br />
efficiency and settlement times it will revolutionise crossborder<br />
payments and save banks $20bn a year (or so Banco<br />
Santander claims). We are led to believe this is the dawn of a<br />
golden age for financial services and the possibilities are so<br />
great that our minds cannot yet fathom how transformative it<br />
will be. Of course, the beauty of the internet was that no-one<br />
saw it coming, no-one could control it, and it has grown into<br />
something almost beyond definition.<br />
And so the news that R3’s unquestionably bold mission to<br />
create a standard in blockchain that all, banks, insurance,<br />
trading houses, stock exchanges, can share, while admirable,<br />
should be viewed with some caution. With 42 banks now on<br />
board, it will be interesting to see how the group delivers<br />
whether too big to succeed or indeed too big to fail, either way<br />
it is too big to ignore. There have already been cries of “cartel”,<br />
from the likes of the ex-Visa forex figurehead Jon Matonis, a<br />
Bitcoin Foundation founding member now busying himself in<br />
the private sector.<br />
After all, what could possibly go wrong with banks colluding<br />
and sending soothing messages to regulators that “everything<br />
is fine, and the great thing is blockchain can actually HELP<br />
enforcement agencies do their jobs better”?<br />
Cynicism aside, the sweeping Death Staresque nature of R3’s<br />
unprecedented and justifiably attention-grabbing partnership<br />
has overshadowed some interesting, smaller use cases. Bank<br />
ledger protocol developer Ripple is not throwing all its eggs<br />
in one “blockchain can save the world” basket, and neither is<br />
PayPal nor rapidly expanding cross-border payment group<br />
Earthport. All have acknowledged the potential but are<br />
positioning themselves to be interoperable, knowing that being<br />
connected to the ledger, having it as an option for them or<br />
their clients, is better than being entirely reliant on the ledger.<br />
It is likely to be the smaller, more nimble companies who can<br />
affect real change while we all wait agog for the big moment<br />
when the banks cut the ribbon on their sparkling new back<br />
ends (which should be sometime around 2026 according to<br />
the World Economic Forum).<br />
It is likely that the payments industry will adapt slowly,<br />
incrementally. We are evolving at a rate of knots, and the last<br />
24 months have been a rollercoaster, but this was already<br />
a sector already at the forefront of innovation, not some<br />
slumbering giant about to get a rude shock. Look for the<br />
suppliers to insurance, capital markets and stock trading for<br />
the initial use cases.<br />
Financial auditors, heavily reliant on their model of scrutinising<br />
the inner workings of financial institutions, would quickly be<br />
out of a job should blockchain come to fruition and usurp<br />
the need for this trusted service. It is no surprise that<br />
PricewaterhouseCooper and Deloitte for two have built their<br />
own blockchain labs and are testing a series of use cases.<br />
And what of poor old Bitcoin?<br />
The forgotten element in all of this is the crypto-currency<br />
which has its own ledger, the Bitcoin blockchain, was cast<br />
aside in 2015. Advocates (like Coinbase) believe the world will<br />
013
eventually gravitate back towards the Bitcoin blockchain once<br />
the banks finish testing and realise they cannot possibly match<br />
the computing power of an open, global network.<br />
Given that Christmas has passed, let’s try a seasonal analogy.<br />
You have picked out a wonderful gift (Bitcoin) for a small child<br />
(the banks), something new and sparkly that you are convinced<br />
they will enjoy as it enhances their life and that of their friends.<br />
However upon opening it the child throws ignores the gift<br />
completely and starts playing with the box it came inside<br />
(blockchain). The reality is more likely somewhere in between.<br />
Perhaps the final analogy for us is less the Internet, and<br />
more Napster, and what that did to the music industry. The<br />
humble file-sharing site brought major record labels and<br />
conglomerates to their knees, completely altering how we the<br />
consumer accessed and bought (or didn’t buy) music.<br />
Mark Taylor<br />
Senior Journalist for<br />
PaymentsCompliance<br />
Mark’s regulatory coverage of the<br />
payments industry touches on<br />
a wide variety of subjects from<br />
cryptocurrency, international<br />
sanctions and anti-money<br />
laundering laws to innovation<br />
The shockwaves reverberated far beyond the tired music world,<br />
and now a generation has matured, file-sharing and streaming<br />
are slowly being monetised, but not without casualties (HMV<br />
being one). There is perhaps is an element of “that could be<br />
us” from a nervous, insular banking community traditionally<br />
fearful of change and of new technology. Crashed cash<br />
machines in the UK often greet bemused customers with the<br />
sight of Windows XP re-booting, hardly a cutting edge process<br />
or a reassuring sight (Microsoft stopped updating XP some<br />
time ago). Are the banks looking at Bitcoin and deciding they<br />
don’t want a Napster moment, and are buying into blockchain<br />
without fully understanding it, or what it can do? Only time<br />
will tell.<br />
About PaymentsCompliance<br />
PaymentsCompliance is part of ComplianceOnline. ComplianceOnline is the leading provider of business<br />
intelligence for the gambling, payments and blockchain industries. We specialise in providing high<br />
level and independent news, analysis, data, eLearning and research through our primary services<br />
GamblingCompliance, PaymentsCompliance and BlockchainBriefing. Request your free 14-day trial at www.<br />
014
A Roadmap to<br />
omnichannel<br />
payments<br />
Juspal Manic is the Director of Specialist Services<br />
function for the International Services segment<br />
of TSYS, a leading global payments provider,<br />
focused on enabling clients to optimise their<br />
payments technology. Juspal has more than 14<br />
years’ experience in the payments space and has<br />
worked across multiple geographies in various<br />
technology roles across the payments value chain.<br />
Juspal Manic<br />
Director of Specialist<br />
Services at TSYS<br />
International<br />
What is omni-channel?<br />
Put simply, Omni-channel as a concept is<br />
a seamless experience for the customer<br />
through a sales process or a process<br />
in terms of making a transaction or<br />
engagement, which could involve mobile,<br />
web and or physical channels.<br />
Omni-channel tries to force an<br />
organization into having a seamless<br />
approach. When you look at the origins of<br />
that concept it dates back to the 2000s.<br />
When mobile devices like smartphones<br />
occurred a lot of retailers were in a<br />
price war situation. At that point, certain<br />
retailers realized that they can’t compete<br />
for price, so what they wanted to do was<br />
change the shopping experience. That’s<br />
why it became more about changing the<br />
experience of the customer and thus,<br />
becoming customer centric. Therefore,<br />
the increasing usage of smartphones<br />
has driven the omni-channel approach.<br />
Obviously you also have the rise of apps<br />
within the smartphone ecosystem and<br />
then you also have the fact that we’re<br />
more connected nowadays. Overall the<br />
customer is the focal point of omnichannel,<br />
with the customer driving the<br />
journey forward in terms of engagement.<br />
It’s also about collaboration because<br />
it forces an organization to pay more<br />
attention to collaboration. In this context<br />
it’s no longer just about physical stores<br />
vs. the digitization, they have to work<br />
together now.<br />
To sum up, the omni-channel concept<br />
is about the seamless integration of all<br />
customer touch points. Looking at the<br />
trends and where this development all<br />
came from, the retail industry gathered<br />
the most momentum for the omnichannel<br />
approach over the last five<br />
years. Since retailers had physical stores<br />
but also digital footprints, they wanted<br />
to merge those together.They were the<br />
forerunners and early proponents of<br />
this concept. After that, a lot of service<br />
providers / IT providers came into play,<br />
but if you think about the next evolution,<br />
there are other industries who have<br />
realized its potential.<br />
For example, it’s no surprise that in<br />
the automobile industry there is a lot<br />
of work going on espacially in the car’s<br />
dashboard landscape about who is<br />
going to be the focal point in your car<br />
(when you get in your car). You have<br />
Google, Microsoft and Apple doing a<br />
lot of investment in this area with the<br />
objective of providing a single ecosystem<br />
with your connected devices. You can<br />
also take wearables as an example, and<br />
now you have the health factor kicking<br />
in. All these industries are getting<br />
bolder in the space because they see<br />
an opportunity to be more connected<br />
with the customer. What is more, you<br />
are going to see great integration of<br />
the omni-channel concept. No longer<br />
will you just have companies looking<br />
at themselves. They’ll look at partners<br />
and vendors that can contribute to make<br />
the customer experience richer. They’ll<br />
also seek strategic alliances with other<br />
vendors or other channels to see if they<br />
can integrate these even more into their<br />
offering. That’s why the trend in retail<br />
very likely kicked that off more than<br />
anybody else, positioning them ahead<br />
of the curve.<br />
When looking at the whole value chain,<br />
there are startups coming in that are<br />
challenging the traditional value chain.<br />
So you have the payments value chain<br />
in which a lot of startup companies<br />
are emerging. These companies want<br />
a chunk of the pre-purchase to postpurchase<br />
market share. Thinking about<br />
all these value chains being disrupted<br />
and then factoring in the influence of<br />
social media, companies have to provide<br />
a seamless experience because it’s<br />
015
not only about the product or service<br />
anymore.<br />
If I had to summarize it in very simple<br />
terms, there are a couple of things I<br />
would focus on. There is a piece around<br />
social media, which is going to upsurge<br />
a challenge on the omni-channel piece.<br />
Another piece pertains to the payments<br />
piece. With mobile wallet and other<br />
means of payments, the acceptance<br />
piece is fundamental. It needs to be<br />
secure, it has to provide high acceptance<br />
level and you need to make sure it’s<br />
frictionless. No more of this two factor<br />
or three factor authentication, that<br />
landscape will change. So when you go<br />
to purchase, all that happens will be<br />
so seamless that perhaps you go back<br />
to your device, you do your biometric<br />
and it’s done. No additional passwords<br />
needed.<br />
There is a non-profit organization called<br />
Fido. It’s about fast identity online.<br />
Effectively you’ve got a lot of the big<br />
players involved, such as Microsoft,<br />
Visa, and Netflix. This organisation is<br />
trying to create a standard for online<br />
authentication. In fact, they are trying<br />
to establish a standard for the removal<br />
of passwords and authentification via<br />
additional means (devices). And then<br />
you think about the connecting piece.<br />
It’ll push the landscape to be a slicker<br />
and more frictionless process.<br />
The loyalty piece also embodies a<br />
challenge for merchants and providers.<br />
For me the biggest part of all of this is<br />
with you being connected, and omnichannel<br />
being effective in the digital<br />
ecosystem, is about real time analytics.<br />
That is what the game changer is. The<br />
reason I’m saying this is if you look at<br />
payments, the analytics is normally on<br />
the fraud —post transactions on the use<br />
of pre transaction in terms of the piece of<br />
authenticating the card holder. However,<br />
now it’s about changing the cardholder’s<br />
behavior to make a purchase.<br />
What kind of organizations are going to<br />
be challenged with this? Some have a<br />
better position to cope with this than<br />
others. A good example is Amazon; they<br />
are fantastic when it comes to analytics.<br />
They have the ability to not only do real<br />
time behavior analytics, but to push<br />
products which they think either you<br />
as a demographic would be interested<br />
in, or you as a customer buying that<br />
product would be interested in.<br />
Today the trends in omni-channel are<br />
around social media, agile supply chains<br />
and frictionless payments. There is<br />
going to be great integration of partners<br />
and alliances, it’s always about being<br />
connected and it’s about the analytics.<br />
That is the front end.<br />
If you look at back end for organizations,<br />
they have to collaborate. The<br />
fundamental element is collaboration.<br />
Internal organizations are not about<br />
bricks and mortar against the digital side<br />
of the business. It’s one single system<br />
now. You have to remove the barriers.<br />
You have to work together. You can also<br />
over-collaborate, which can have the<br />
reverse effect so you need to get the<br />
balance.<br />
How is the new Internet of Things<br />
concept influencing the way people<br />
work with omni-channel and its<br />
strategy development?<br />
When you think about it very simplistically<br />
there is a saying ‘always on and always<br />
mobile’. That to me summarizes the IoT.<br />
Research shows that there are about<br />
13.4 billion connected devices around<br />
the world today. By 2020 it’s expected<br />
to grow to 38 billion. When thinking<br />
about the opportunity to be always on<br />
and always mobile it does open huge<br />
opportunities for engagement but also<br />
adds a huge amount of complexity. You’ll<br />
see people coming into the game who<br />
are not here today but you’ll also see the<br />
traditional players evolve and change as<br />
well.<br />
One potential new industry, which can<br />
utilize the IoT, is healthcare. You look at<br />
a person walking around with a Fitbit or<br />
you have some type of health connected<br />
device but also the Apple Watch. All<br />
those kind of things are collecting<br />
data on you. The question is what the<br />
next evolution of wearables is. At the<br />
moment they’re still at an early stage.<br />
Via wearables, you can now make a<br />
transaction. With Apple Watch you can<br />
actually make a contactless transaction<br />
via a point-of –sale device. I think that’s<br />
only the first part of the journey. The<br />
next part is going to be more interesting<br />
because you are always connected.<br />
When you walk into a store and you have<br />
your device enabled, you go walk past a<br />
piece of clothing or a product, which has<br />
a RFID or NFC connect tag on it, it will<br />
have the ability to push an offer to you<br />
in real time. If inventory is high and you<br />
have a surplus on these goods and they<br />
aren’t selling, you can put a real time<br />
offer to that customer and if they do a<br />
purchase, it supports the management<br />
of your inventory management, which<br />
can make organizations more efficient<br />
and lean. If you are a retailer and you<br />
can offer a price point there and then,<br />
which is competitive, which will make<br />
the customer react, it will likely to be<br />
beneficial to both parties. In this way<br />
your inventory management as well as<br />
your supply chain also become slicker,<br />
but the customer feels the value.<br />
If you look at where intelligent devices<br />
are: what will happen is that the<br />
layers between the customers and<br />
organization will become much thinner.<br />
Typically, when you launch a strategy,<br />
the marketing people of an organization<br />
have an idea of a concept and push it<br />
to the business guys. The business guys<br />
then verify on the marketing campaign<br />
or the proposed approach. It moves<br />
across the other departments like IT,<br />
Finance and Logistics. These guys then<br />
become enablers in making that strategy<br />
happen.<br />
This has changed, and in reality, it’s no<br />
longer only initiated by product and<br />
marketing. It’s about product, marketing,<br />
IT and the enabling functions that<br />
support the business because it has to<br />
be a collective vision not just a singular<br />
vision. You could have the best product<br />
in the world but (from an architecture<br />
perspective) if you can’t support the<br />
distribution or the channels of selling it,<br />
it’s not going to be successful. Companies<br />
have to be much more agile in their<br />
approach. A lot of banks, IT providers,<br />
IT divisions within major corporations<br />
like retail, automobile; these guys are<br />
enablers. But they traditionally follow<br />
a waterfall development life cycle.<br />
Then you have a lot of startups which<br />
come into the industry who use agile<br />
development so they’re able to deliver<br />
quicker. That’s because they don’t have<br />
the same kind robust processes in their<br />
organization.<br />
The traditional organizations when<br />
they go into omni-channel and IoT, they<br />
are going to have to be more agile. If<br />
you don’t have the agility, and strategy<br />
development you are going to suffer<br />
016
ecause other people are coming to the<br />
market much quicker than you.<br />
The fundamental premise of the,<br />
always on and always mobile mentality,<br />
is that it gives organizations access<br />
to the customer but also provides a<br />
lot more data points. It’s important<br />
since the strategy has to be built on<br />
understanding your customers. The<br />
challenge (where strategy development<br />
becomes very difficult), is how the data<br />
is central to your strategy development.<br />
With the collection of data and the<br />
huge pool you have and the investment<br />
in data scientist it’s about making the<br />
data relevant for you, your product and<br />
your value chain. If you mine the wrong<br />
data, then in fact you could move your<br />
product or the value chain in a way<br />
where you will be outcompeted in the<br />
market. It’s about the data collection, its<br />
analysis and the utilization within your<br />
strategy development. If you can do that<br />
and you can distribute your data to the<br />
certain area of the business where it’s<br />
relevant you can build a more cohesive<br />
strategy.<br />
What are the key challenges in the<br />
omni-channel strategies?<br />
You need to understand your customer<br />
before you start the journey to provide an<br />
omni-channel approach. So you need to<br />
look at your strategy when implementing<br />
an omni-channel approach to make sure<br />
it’s cross-functional, cross-channel and<br />
cross-platform. These three things<br />
are fundamental in an omni-channel<br />
strategy. However, you need to ensure<br />
that it’s also an agile strategy and it can<br />
be executed upon. Otherwise you’re<br />
going to be behind the market. It also<br />
goes down to the integration of not<br />
just your own services but third party<br />
services.<br />
So the market is going to a state where<br />
companies are willing to work more with<br />
third parties and strategic partners or<br />
vendors. What they’re asking for is the<br />
ease of integration. APIs or headless<br />
APIs need to be integrated in a seamless<br />
way by making them very non- complex,<br />
because if they are not, the problem<br />
is that you become very hard to work<br />
with. Then in fact, you might loose<br />
your opportunities because the omnichannel<br />
concept as well as the IoT is<br />
about connectivity. It’s about ease of<br />
integration. Speed to market and ease<br />
of integration are key factors as well as<br />
the enablement of third parties. With<br />
all these factors to take into account,<br />
you make your own environment more<br />
complex and that’s where collaboration<br />
comes in.<br />
If internally you’re not aligned to<br />
collaborate, and externally you are<br />
a difficult partner to work with, then<br />
your chances of finding opportunities<br />
to collaborate will be limited. In simple<br />
terms, if your execution is slow and poor<br />
you will start finding pressure within<br />
your business, which you then have to<br />
outsource or diversify further.<br />
The barriers of entry in payments at<br />
the moment is low because companies<br />
are entering the value chain and<br />
causing disruption easily because they<br />
only focus on a specific element . The<br />
question is when the regulators start to<br />
become much more aggressive on the<br />
end to end value chain. At the moment<br />
it focuses on the core piece, which is<br />
making the transaction securely and<br />
treating the customers fairly with their<br />
data protected.<br />
An omni-channel strategy allows you to<br />
manage the customer journey. However,<br />
if you don’t manage the customer<br />
channel, somebody else will do that for<br />
you.<br />
What makes omni-channel payments<br />
special and why?<br />
I think even if you can have the best<br />
product or service in the world, but have<br />
the most cumbersome and disjointed<br />
way to make a payment, or the lack of a<br />
seamless experience on your payment,<br />
you won’t succeed. Customers will be<br />
turned off and go elsewhere. That’s<br />
the beauty; they have the choice to<br />
go elsewhere. The element that links<br />
the customer with all these things is<br />
payments. That’s one of the unique<br />
identifier. In the past customers were<br />
unwilling to give their details. However,<br />
if there is a benefit for them then they<br />
are happy to give you that information.<br />
Apple Pay has come into the market and<br />
changed the dynamic by authenticating<br />
using your biometric and NFC. PayPal<br />
can be mentioned as innovators in<br />
this context. Their strategy is to open<br />
themselves up from an API perspective<br />
so that they can easily integrate into<br />
what ever the payment vehicle is.<br />
Amazon Payments is trying the same,<br />
moving into that space. Their advantage<br />
is that they have a large footprint, they<br />
possess diversity in terms of their stalls,<br />
and they could challenge the payments<br />
landscape when implementing payment<br />
authentication with their own Amazon<br />
authentication approach, i.e., just using<br />
your Amazon credentials.<br />
An omni-channel strategy enables you<br />
to collect more data points than just<br />
on the card payment / transaction.<br />
Consequently, you will be able to control<br />
and manage the customer journey and<br />
experience more effectively. The reason<br />
that payments are so valued in omnichannel<br />
is that when considering micro<br />
services and APIs you can now easily<br />
integrate with partners. Hence, you<br />
can have a better loyalty and reward<br />
program, whereas in the past they were<br />
separate services.<br />
What is the future outlook for<br />
omni-channel?<br />
It’s about building micro services,<br />
which are available to integrate, very<br />
simple but at the same time secure and<br />
reliable. Being cross-channel is also a<br />
fundamental factor. Wearables will have<br />
a significant impact on omni-channel<br />
in the future too. They will get more<br />
intelligent, more sophisticated and add<br />
many more functions like GPS. On top<br />
of that, many other industries will come<br />
into the market, including automobile,<br />
utilities and healthcare.<br />
On the marketing side, there are the real<br />
time analytics, which will help companies<br />
to obtain better insight into the customer<br />
and push more relevant products and<br />
services based on the gathered data.<br />
Another aspect that organizations<br />
have to pay attention to in the future<br />
is payments. Ease of integration will be<br />
required, high acceptance as well as<br />
security. The last factor I find most vital<br />
for the future is the agility of the logistics<br />
and the supply chain to cope with the<br />
demand.<br />
017
Infographic description<br />
With this infographic, we wanted to highlight a significant growth in mobile phone usage, as it<br />
has become a conduit for payment solutions worldwide, and leading this trend are users from<br />
emerging countries.<br />
The top five receiving countries, for money transfer and family remittance, are China, Philippines,<br />
Mexico, India, and Nigeria. These countries have contributed to the big impact in the market’s<br />
numbers. Because the remittance market in the developing countries is among the most<br />
expensive in the world, the mobile wallet industry has opted to become one of the most<br />
advanced, with mobile phones penetration at an all-time high.<br />
As a result of this trend, we have been able to observed a substantial growth in usage of mobile<br />
phones, due to the growth of the mobile payment service, the actual number of mobile phone<br />
owners, and the money spent in mobile apps and browsers.<br />
About Paytoo<br />
PAYTOO is a brand of PAYTOO Corp., a US Corporation founded in 1999. Since then,<br />
PAYTOO has expanded its line of products and launched in 2009 the first mobile<br />
solution to combine telecommunications and payments into one single account, the<br />
PAYTOO Mobile Wallet. This unique mobile wallet offers not only an alternative to a<br />
bank account, but also a complete range of financial services such as direct deposit,<br />
money transfer, gift cards, bill payment, cell phone top ups, prepaid and virtual<br />
MasterCard, paying a merchant, and its two newer products, the cardless ATM and the<br />
multi-service profit center kiosk.<br />
019
Spotlight<br />
Think you have what it takes to start a business in<br />
a super-hot market?<br />
<strong>PCM</strong> takes a close look at some of the most<br />
innovative and promising startup companies in the<br />
payment industry.<br />
Using Your
“IT’S NOT JUST<br />
ABOUT SENDING<br />
MONEY, IT’S<br />
ABOUT BEING A<br />
TRUE FINANCE<br />
PLATFORM”<br />
A<br />
recent study shows found that<br />
Southeast Asia has a large<br />
inbound remittance market<br />
that was worth US$56.8 billion<br />
in 2014. However, there are many<br />
inefficiencies in the remittance market.<br />
One of those problems is the way money<br />
is sent by overseas workers.<br />
We speak with Aaron Siwoku, founder<br />
and CEO of Toast, a startup using<br />
blockchain technology to provide a fast<br />
and cheap alternative to traditional<br />
money senders.<br />
Where did your idea for Toast<br />
originate?<br />
So, basically we started off developing a<br />
digital currency platform, CRYPTOSIGMA.<br />
We decided that the real problem we<br />
are trying to solve is not making it more<br />
easy to buy and sell but we wanted to<br />
actually create a more efficient finance<br />
platform. When we started thinking<br />
about that, simultaneously we also came<br />
across something that’s a big problem<br />
here in Singapore and it’s replicated<br />
in Hong Kong and numerous other<br />
cities across the world, especially in the<br />
United Arab Emirates. We saw domestic<br />
helpers and migrant workers, queueing<br />
up at Western Union to send money<br />
and the queues would be down the<br />
Aaron Siwoku, founder & CEO, Toast<br />
street. One thing that struck me about<br />
this queue was that everybody had a<br />
smartphone, with 3G data connection<br />
and was chatting on Viber and checking<br />
Facebook. Then I thought, there must<br />
be an easier way to send money, rather<br />
than queueing up and handing physical<br />
cash over counter.<br />
So, there is a couple of problems to solve<br />
there. The problem that a lot of people<br />
think is relevant is the moving of money<br />
from one place to another - but this is<br />
actually the easiest part of the equation.<br />
The most difficult part of the equation is;<br />
how do you get money from somebody<br />
who doesn’t have a bank account? How<br />
do you get that money into a digital<br />
application and represent it as a digital<br />
balance in an eWallet and do the KYC<br />
and AML checks?<br />
What we decided to do is to change<br />
the name of the platform from<br />
CRYPTOSIGMA to TOAST, because we<br />
felt that sending money should be as<br />
easy as it is to make a piece of toast<br />
and we really wanted to simplify the<br />
remittance experience. We felt that<br />
was a great place for us to start and get<br />
our foot in the door, but as the money<br />
remittances’ business is not terribly<br />
profitable, we knew that this was only<br />
the initial problem we wanted to solve<br />
and eventually (the aim is) to look more<br />
like a digital Bank.<br />
There are lots of good examples of<br />
digital Banks in the UK and Europe but<br />
not in Asia. So, we really felt there was an<br />
opportunity to become a digital bank in<br />
Asia, starting with remittance because it<br />
is a very relevant problem that affects a<br />
wide demographic of people that starts<br />
with migrant workers but goes all the<br />
way up the chain to white collar workers<br />
and even businesses. So we thought that<br />
we can make it efficient to send money<br />
and make the user experience simpler.<br />
What is your core product or service<br />
and what makes it different?<br />
One of the things we are planning to<br />
launch in Q2 is Direct Bill Payment,<br />
because the second biggest problem<br />
after queueing up to send cash back<br />
is the fact that when you actually get<br />
to the front of the queue to send that<br />
cash wherever you want to send it, often<br />
you are sending it to a (now) estranged<br />
fiancé, partner, husband/wife who is<br />
looking after children. Perhaps you’ve<br />
been away for two or three years<br />
working as a maid in Singapore or Hong<br />
Kong and you are now seeing somebody<br />
else, the recipient person is also seeing<br />
somebody else and the money that you<br />
send actually doesn’t all make it to where<br />
it is supposed to go.<br />
021
So, we are now in Q1, setting up Direct<br />
Bill Payment, which means that using<br />
TOAST in Singapore and Hong Kong a<br />
Filipino migrant worker will be able to<br />
do to bill payments over 390 different<br />
providers in the Philippines - that’s<br />
everything from government, utilities, to<br />
insurance, healthcare, loans, education,<br />
etc.<br />
From there we feel going forward into<br />
the future we can hopefully then do<br />
advanced pay day loans, interest on<br />
fixed deposits and then we can start to<br />
look very much like a digital bank. So,<br />
we just see money transfer and being<br />
a mediator as a way to build a finance<br />
platform that people rely on, trust, and<br />
does the things that people want it to do.<br />
My bank, apart from keeping my money<br />
and allowing me to spend it on a debit<br />
card, doesn’t really provide me with any<br />
interesting products that I need. For<br />
example, I want to buy iTunes credit,<br />
pay for gaming credits, buy stock, and<br />
that’s me and my needs and desires, but<br />
my bank doesn’t understand me, and it<br />
don’t make it easy to do those things<br />
that I want to do through my bank, and<br />
that’s a problem.<br />
So, the platform we are building really<br />
understands the demographic that<br />
we are targeting. We understand that<br />
they want to do money transfer, Direct<br />
Bank Depositing, Bill Payment, load the<br />
prepaid mobile phone number with<br />
credit for a family member, they want<br />
loans, interests on deposits, and so on.<br />
These are the very specific modules that<br />
we are building within TOAST so that we<br />
end up with this model banking system,<br />
where people can say, well, I want to do<br />
money transfer and I want to load the<br />
prepaid mobile number of my grandma<br />
so we can talk together on Whatsapp.<br />
Someone else might say, I don’t want to<br />
do money transfer but I want to do Bill<br />
Payments to keep the electricity on and<br />
I want to buy gaming credits for my kids<br />
to play games after school. This is where<br />
we are going with it, it is not just about<br />
sending money, its about being a finance<br />
platform with multiple applications. Not<br />
just a transaction processor but about<br />
being a true finance platform. I think we<br />
just really care about getting it right, we<br />
care about understanding our user. To<br />
go back to what I was saying before, my<br />
bank does not understand me because<br />
they cannot process and interpret the<br />
data and say, why are you moving money<br />
to a competitor bank? What can we do<br />
better, to keep you as a customer?<br />
Banks have got into quite a funny place<br />
where they actually spend more money<br />
on user acquisition and very little<br />
money on existing users and if you are<br />
going to keep existing users, you have<br />
to understand that it is a relationship.<br />
Your relationship with your users or<br />
customers is the same as a relationship<br />
with boyfriend, girlfriend, or a brother<br />
or sister. If you do not understand that<br />
person and you cannot communicate<br />
with them (it can quickly) result in a<br />
relationship breakdown. The reason<br />
I think TOAST is so special is because<br />
we put a great deal of emphasis on<br />
understanding our users, we speak to<br />
them, we ask them “what do you want?”.<br />
We try to look at the things that are<br />
happening, the way they are interacting<br />
with the platform, the way the money is<br />
moving toward what is popular, and (also<br />
what is not so) popular. If its not popular,<br />
lets remove that module. If there is<br />
something that people require, lets<br />
figure out how we can build that module<br />
into the platform to continue forward<br />
with this modular based banking system<br />
that I envision where people can pick<br />
and choose what products they want<br />
to use and what’s most very relevant.<br />
So, I think its just the fact that we are<br />
looking at the data, we care about what<br />
the date is telling us, and through this<br />
we are really listening to our customers.<br />
A snapshot of the Toast app.<br />
022<br />
Because of this, we care not so much<br />
about acquiring a ton of new users but<br />
we care about serving the existing ones
we have very, very well and making the<br />
platform very relevant for those people.<br />
What kind of year do you foresee for<br />
your company and the industry as a<br />
whole?<br />
I think there are a lot of people coming<br />
into the payments space now - it’s a<br />
crowded space, FinTech is popular,<br />
Remittance is popular. There are lots<br />
of people out there pitching remittance<br />
ideas; remittance companies, and digital<br />
remittance companies. However, the<br />
majority of them aren’t licensed, they<br />
are just pitching an idea, and there is a<br />
big difference between pitching an idea<br />
and actually having licenses and then<br />
having more licenses in progress and<br />
application.<br />
On top of that, there are some companies<br />
out there that have licenses but they do<br />
not have the right product or the right<br />
systems. It is a complicated business,<br />
once you have the license you have to<br />
actually be able to move the money,<br />
you have to in detail understand how<br />
to move the money, you have to have<br />
the systems in place to track that money,<br />
to do the transaction monitoring and<br />
reporting, you have to be able to do<br />
AML and CFT cross checks. I think what is<br />
going to happen is as a lot of these other<br />
startups that are in this space don’t get<br />
licensed and as we continue to acquire<br />
licenses (we just acquired our license<br />
in Hong Kong, we are in the process<br />
of acquiring our license in Singapore,<br />
we just started our application for our<br />
license in the UK, for example), some of<br />
the larger companies, (e.g.) Transferwise,<br />
Azimo, maybe some of the banks are<br />
going to start to pay attention and they<br />
are going to look at us in more detail.<br />
I would imagine over the next two years<br />
we will be an interesting acquisition<br />
target for some of these bigger players,<br />
but acquisition is not what we are looking<br />
for. We want to build this platform, and<br />
it doesn’t make sense for us to work<br />
so hard on this product simply to be<br />
acquired a year or two later. I think this<br />
is something that might make sense in 5<br />
or 6 years but we have got a lot of work<br />
to do. So, I envisioned over the next 5<br />
years a lot of very hard work, a lot of<br />
growth on the platform and I think you<br />
will see a lot of innovation in terms of<br />
these products that we develop and how<br />
relevant they are to our demographic.<br />
We are building a pre-eminent finance<br />
platform for Filipinos.<br />
What are the key hurdles for growing<br />
your business in the coming years?<br />
The big growth barriers for us of course<br />
are around regulation and licensing<br />
because we are dealing with money. I<br />
think for us, our growth and becoming<br />
popular as a platform will just be based<br />
around the fact that we are deploying<br />
a great product, its easy to use, its<br />
intuitive, the user interface is very slick<br />
and there is a demand for a product<br />
like this. It is very difficult to move<br />
money. Speaking to many people they<br />
expressed their frustration whether<br />
doing it at WesternUnion or via an online<br />
banking system. I have a desk full of<br />
banking tokens and it’s a nightmare. I<br />
think for somebody like us to come in<br />
and to remove a lot of friction from that<br />
process, to have the licensing and to<br />
have the systems in place to move the<br />
money efficiently and safely gives us a lot<br />
of room to grow in this space.<br />
All in all, I think that growth comes<br />
through solving (popular problems).<br />
Growth is then a natural result of<br />
solving a problem that is long overdue<br />
to be solved and that’s what we have to<br />
focus on. We do not need to get carried<br />
away with ourselves, thinking about how<br />
much we are going to spend on user<br />
acquisition or what kind of TV campaigns<br />
we are going to have. No, I think we just<br />
have to continue to build a product that<br />
people want in their hand and solves the<br />
problem which is sending money from<br />
A to B – which currently is a nightmare!<br />
Any recent exciting news you would<br />
like to share with the payments<br />
community?<br />
Pretty much just the fact that we<br />
are going to be launching some new<br />
products in Q2, to expand on this<br />
modular based banking system that<br />
we are building. That will enable Bill<br />
Payments and to load prepaid mobile<br />
phone in the Philippines, directly from<br />
your TOAST app or directly from the web<br />
interface.<br />
Aaron Siwoku (left) at the FinTech Innovation Forum 2015.<br />
023
Hot Jobs<br />
b<br />
Sales Director, PSP<br />
Paris<br />
b<br />
Chief Risk & Compliance Officer<br />
UK<br />
b<br />
Solution Consultant<br />
Rotterdam Area<br />
b<br />
Product Developer, PTS<br />
Munich<br />
b<br />
Payment Consultant<br />
Germany<br />
b<br />
Product Integrator, PTS<br />
Munich<br />
b<br />
Business Analyst, PTS<br />
Wiesbaden & Munich<br />
b<br />
Senior Java Developer<br />
Amsterdam<br />
b<br />
Business Architect, PTS<br />
Wiesbaden & Munich<br />
b<br />
Senior C Developer<br />
Amsterdam<br />
b<br />
Sales Director, High Risk<br />
Merchants<br />
London<br />
b<br />
Solution Architect<br />
Amsterdam<br />
024
Events<br />
Date: Jan. 27-29, 2015 | Kuala Lumpur<br />
The conference will cover numerous<br />
topics such as ‘Innovation and<br />
Emerging Technology in Retail<br />
Banking’, ‘Understanding your<br />
Customer: Why it’s not an option’<br />
and ‘Challenges in moving from<br />
a product-centric to a customercentric<br />
organisation’. Delegates will<br />
have the opportunity to network<br />
with professionals from industry<br />
leading organisations.<br />
Date: Jan. 25-26, 2016 | Copenhagen<br />
This event will examine why the<br />
importance of a good strategy<br />
has never been more significant,<br />
especially with the large increase<br />
in new market players competing<br />
with the traditional banks. The<br />
conference will also discuss the<br />
future of real-time payments<br />
and possible risks banks need to<br />
consider.<br />
Date: Jan. 26-28, 2016 | London<br />
The event brings together over<br />
700 global public transport<br />
executives, government officials<br />
and service providers - all looking<br />
to kick-start their year with the<br />
latest technologies, research and<br />
knowledge, while networking with<br />
clients and valuable new contacts.<br />
Use promotional code “PCN20” to<br />
claim 20% discount on ticket price.<br />
Date: Jan 27-28, 2016 | Stockholm<br />
Nordic MCP 2016 will feature 8<br />
keynote presentations, 2 interesting<br />
tracks, 600 minutes of networking.<br />
After years of doubt whether<br />
mobile payments will take off,<br />
now we believe this argument is<br />
finished. Nordic MCP will focus its<br />
attention on what this means for<br />
retailers, what are the true benefits<br />
and what are the changes in<br />
consumer behaviour as a result.<br />
025
Payments and<br />
Cards Network<br />
Driving Innovation through knowledge<br />
You have any suggestions or ideas for<br />
the next issue of our <strong>PCM</strong> eMagazine?<br />
Get in touch today and maybe you will<br />
be featured in the next edition:<br />
Amsterdam Office<br />
Herengracht 576<br />
1017 CJ<br />
Amsterdam<br />
The Netherlands<br />
Email: info@<br />
paymentsandcardsnetwork.com<br />
Tel: +31 20 3030 257<br />
Fax: +31 20 8208 295<br />
Follow us now and stay up-to-date<br />
with the latest happenings in the<br />
payment world!