CALL FOR SPEAKERS! All Payments Expo, March 21-23, 2016

 

CALL FOR SPEAKERS!

APEX is our flagship annual payments event which attracts 850+ senior executives from across the retailer and payments communities. It is a highly interactive forum in which to discuss the rapidly evolving world of retail payments - from macro industry trends to digital convergence and payments disruption. By bringing together the brightest minds and leading talents in retailing, payments and technology it is a truly compelling event with unprecedented networking opportunities.

We have created an outstanding program for APEX 2016 and we are seeking new speaking talent to bring the very best ideas in payments to our expert audience. We would welcome speaker submissions from cutting edge retailers, banks, merchant acquirers, POS providers, technology companies, program managers, processors, networks, card manufacturers, and service providers.

If you would like to be considered for the 2016 speaker faculty please contact our Payments Brand Strategy Director, Katie Gwyn-Williams at katie.gwyn-williams@informa.com

 

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The Current State of the Payments Industry

The word cloud above is a visual representation of the state of the payments industry according to the All Payments Expo Executive Summary. To download the full report, click here.

APEX is the annual meeting place at the intersection of payments innovation, including emerging payments, prepaid, alternative financial services, retail and technology. Join us March 21-23, 2016 in New Orleans for All Payments Expo 2016!

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Weekly Payments Round Up

The APEX team brings you your weekly payments round up. Below you will find recent industry news that we found compelling and felt that we needed to share with our readers! Enjoy.

Top Stories:

American Eagle Outfitters Banks On Store Consolidation And Omni-Channel To Improve Store Productivity
With e-commerce not turning into a big business for many retailers despite continued robust growth, the need for omni-channel retailing has emerged. The entire apparel industry is gradually shifting towards this concept, which appears to be the future of retailing. Over the past 15 months, American Eagle has taken several steps towards the development of its omni-channel platform and all of them have shown good promise so far. Its “buy online and ship from the store” pilot program has helped it attract those customers, who could have shied away from the retailer if the inventory pool wasn’t integrated across all the channels. The initial roll out was slow, but the company soon went aggressive on its deployment. In its Q1 earnings call, American Eagle had stated that this service would be available in 100 stores by the back-to-school season. However, it had 255 stores offering this service at the end of Q2.

Lamassu: Bitcoin ATM Owners Earning Up to $36,000 Per Year
Lamassu has reported its bitcoin ATM operators now process an average of $20,000-worth of bitcoin each month, while units placed in prime locations receive as much as $40,000–$60,000 in monthly transactions. Lamassu's survey estimated that its operators earn between $1,000–$3,000 each month on an average commission of 5.5%. This equates to annual earnings for ATM operators of between $12,000 and $36,000 per unit.

Hackers exploit NFC phone payment technology
Several bugs in Near Field Communication (NFC) payment systems have been found by security experts. NFC allows people to pay for goods and services by touching their handset to a payment terminal. But the inclusion of the technology on phones has proved useful to hackers seeking a stealthy way to take over a mobile phone. In most cases the bugs would give an attacker complete access to a device's data.

Snapchat introduces Snapcash for P2P payments
The question "how do you monetize Snapchat" has finally been answered and it's going to open up a lot of possibilities for users. Snapchat has introduced Snapcash, a way to send mobile payments to friends using the image sending-then-destroying service.


Have a great weekend!

- The APEX Team

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Live From All Payments Expo & FinTech Partnerships - Morning of Day 1

This morning we had a lively panel discussion at FinTech Partnerships - The Mash-Up: When Big Meets Start-Up

The panel consisted of:
Jim Hale - FTV Capital
Mike Diamond - Mitek Systems
Steve Carlson - Intuit
Robert Schiff - McKinsey & Company
Moderated by Jane J. Thompson of Jane J. Thompson Financial Services 


Discussion highlights: 
Think of it in terms of elephants and mice, the big banks and issuers are the elephants and the innovators and start ups are the mice.

For elephants, fewer and fewer people are empowered to say yes, while more and more are empowered to say no. So mice need to have a way to solve a problem for the elephants to be interested in the potential partnership - they want certainty.

Key points to remember as the innovator: 
- Keep your eye on the ball; natural alignment focused on selective objectives
- Be wary of side agreements like revenue sharing agreements and exclusivity agreements 
- Be stingy with control 
- Partners' ownership is additive
- Think long term; begin with the end in mind

What makes a partnership successful? 
- Be clear about the problem you are trying to solve 
- Internal champions are critical - career risks, putting a lot on the line
- Make sure goals and objectives are aligned early on

Currently the consumers are driving innovation - this creates new challenges for the elephant and the mouse. Further cementing the importance of aligned goals and objectives between all parties involved. 

Thank you to the outstanding panel and stay tuned for more live recaps from All Payments Expo & FinTech Partnerships!

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Q&A with Sarika Abbi, Director of Ideation, at D2D Fund

There have been lots of innovations surfacing for GPR cards, and one that’s particularly gotten the industry’s attention is savings pockets. At Prepaid Expo in March, Sarika Abbi, Director of Ideation at D2D Fund, provided some interesting research on savings pockets’ impact on GPR card stickiness and users’ financial health. Now, with D2D’s new report, Paving the Way Forward: Savings On Prepaid Cards, she dives even deeper. Check out the report, and our exclusive Q&A with her below.


1. This recent report has some sobering facts, including that 50% of Americans are not confident they could manage a $2,000 financial emergency. What’s the single most important thing the financial services industry should be doing to turn statistics like these around?

The financial services industry can help turn statistics like this around by keeping in mind that helping consumers on a path towards financial stability will be a win-win proposition – consumers that are not liquidity constrained and have stronger household balance sheets will be more satisfied, engaged, and profitable consumers. 

2. According to this study, cards with these savings features tend to experience less churn. Is there a barrier keeping more program managers incorporating savings pockets into their programs?

One significant challenge is that program managers need others in the prepaid value chain (e.g. processor, issuing bank) able to and comfortable (especially from a risk perspective) with offering additional features such as savings. But there is also a misperception of consumers’ interest and demand for this feature as well as how it can be effectively marketed and designed on a prepaid card to work for both providers and consumers. 

We also need to think differently about what “savings” and “successful savings” means for consumers. For some, it is about building a reserve for a near or long-term goal but for others, especially more financially vulnerable consumers, it is about having access to a revolving savings pocket – a place where they can set a little bit aside when available but dip into it for short-term needs such as groceries and emergencies. While savings might not stay long in this pocket and might be perceived as non-savings, it is helping consumers address their liquidity needs. A lack of liquidity can be a significant contributor to financial vulnerability for households.  And access to savings can help consumers rely less on and slowly transition away from alternatives to savings, such as credit, that can be costly and destabilizing. 

3. There’s been some resistance from the regulatory community about offering credit or overdraft on GPR and payroll cards. Do those features help users who are in a financial bind? What’s your take?

Without addressing the regulatory concerns here, which I assume also incorporates concerns over fees, I do believe offering credit (or a form of credit) could be interesting and a value-add from both the consumers’ as well as providers’ perspective.  However, credit would need to be carefully designed and made accessible to address the tension between a need for credit when in a financial bind and access to credit that can be further destabilizing and detrimental to households. So, for instance, it would be interesting to explore credit in conjunction with a savings feature on a prepaid card – made accessible and designed in a way that can and does help consumers in a financial bind. 

4. What’s the next step for you and your team’s product innovation and research? 

We continue looking at innovation that helps scale savings on prepaid cards. Below is some of the work we are interested in: 

• Exploring savings on prepaid cards offered through various channels such as retailers, employers and the government to scale access to savings.
• Designing add-on features, such as a prize-linked savings layer and gamification, to strengthen engagement with savings features by making saving fun and rewarding.
• Bundling savings on prepaid cards with additional financial products or services, such as credit, that can help address the savings gap when a short-term need arises. 
• Exploring ways to commoditize savings, such as gifting savings, and offering stand-alone savings prepaid cards.    

Sarika Abbi is the Director of Ideation at D2D Fund. She works on initiatives to design and pilot new saving products as well as new ways to market and distribute these products to under-served consumers. Prior to joining D2D her work focused on improving financial access for low income households in developing countries. While at Ideas42, she worked with researchers and practitioners in development finance to design financial products and managed a research center and team internationally to pilot test the designs. Before entering the financial inclusion field, she worked in the private sector consulting on executive compensation. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from NYU and a Bachelors of Economics from Univ. of California, Berkeley.

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