Leaders In Payments and FinTech - The EDC Podcast

Each year, EDC's Advanced Payments and Fintech Report provides insights into the latest trends shaping the payments landscape. Now in its 17th edition, the report examines 14 key areas transforming the industry, driven by technological innovations, regulatory changes, and evolving consumer preferences. The report also includes findings from our annual industry survey conducted between May and July 2024, gathering insights from 100 senior payments professionals worldwide on the most pressing challenges and opportunities.

In this episode, Samee Zafar meets with Ralf Germer, Co-Founder and CEO of PagBrasil, to delve into the evolving landscape of payment processing in Brazil. Ralf shares his personal journey from Germany to becoming a fintech leader in Latin America and how PagBrasil is facilitating both local and international merchants in navigating Brazil’s sophisticated payments market. He discusses the unique challenges faced by global companies when entering the Brazilian market and how PagBrasil is bridging the gap by providing tailored payment solutions that meet local demands. We also explore how the Central Bank of Brazil’s openness to innovation has paved the way for advancements like Pix and the country’s rapid embrace of instant payments and digital currency. Join us as we uncover insights into the dynamic payments industry in one of the world’s most critical markets.

In this episode, Hugh Gallagher meets with Roenen Ben-Ami, Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer at Justt. Justt is transforming the world of chargeback management with its AI-powered solution that helps businesses recover lost revenue and streamline operational efficiency. Roenen shares how Justt’s unique approach simplifies the chargeback process by automatically generating case-specific responses, allowing businesses to efficiently resolve disputes while focusing on growth and innovation. We also discuss the future of payments and how automation is playing a crucial role in shaping the industry.

In this episode of the Leaders in Payments and Fintech podcast, Jerome Traisnel, CEO and founder of SlimPay, discusses his extensive journey and insights in the fintech and payments industry. The conversation delves into the evolution of SlimPay, the first payment service provider focused exclusively on recurring payments, and its role in the rise of the subscription economy. Highlights include Jerome's background in engineering and marketing, his early ventures in mobile technology with Freever, and SlimPay's recent partnership with Trustly to set new standards for recurring payments across Europe and the UK. The episode also explores the challenges and strategies in scaling a fintech company, regulatory impacts, and the future landscape of payments and subscription services globally.

In this episode of the Leaders in Payments and Fintech podcast, James Neville, CEO, and founder of Yaspa, discusses his journey and insights in the fintech and payments industry. The conversation focuses on the evolution of Yaspa, a real-time payments business leveraging open banking technologies to reduce fraud, improve customer identification, and streamline transactions in regulated markets. Highlights include the impact of GDPR and FCA regulations, the challenges and strategies in consumer and merchant adoption, and future prospects for growth and innovation in the payments landscape globally.

This week we speak with Fliss Berridge, co-founder at Ordo - a UK fintech offering fully managed and white labelled open banking enabled payments services. The company was founded by the former management team of the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme back in 2018 with a mission to use open banking payments to provide businesses with an alternative to card payments and direct bank payments. In our conversation we discuss the latest developments in UK Open Banking, focusing on recent announcements by the JROC - Joint Regulatory Oversights Committee - on both commercial VRP-enabled services  - that is Variable Recurring Payments, and the future Open Banking entity. Some amazing insights here to bring you right up to date with UK Open Banking. And before we dive into the conversation, I just would like to add that this is actually the last EDC podcast that I will be hosting. I will be moving on and handing you over to the rest of the EDC team for the next episode. So with that out of the way, let's get straight into the conversation with Fliss Berridge from Ordopay.

This week we speak with Hazal Muhtar, Director of Product Analytics at Wise. Wise probably needs no introduction. Launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise, it is one of the world’s fastest growing, profitable fintech companies and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2021. Hazal heads up a rapidly growing data analytics team at Wise, and in our conversation, we discuss various topics including the role of data analytics in product innovation in a highly regulated industry, the challenge of building data and technology teams around strategic business priorities, and key considerations when scaling teams.

This week we are meeting with Edy Bruinooge, CCO at IBANXS. The company was founded in 2019 in The Hague and has grown to become the leading Open Banking provider in the Netherlands. The company independent PSD2 platform connects clients with over 2,500 banks across Europe for Payments and/or Account Information. Clients live on the platform range from Payment Service Providers to Accounting Software companies to Lending and Factoring companies. Edy and his team have done an incredible job to both integrate with so many banks across Europe. The APIs all vary and the ongoing effort to maintain all these connections and deliver a consistent quality of services is not to be underestimated. We have a frank and honest discussion about the state of PSD2, PSD3 and Open Banking across Europe. Edy talks openly about the iBANXS journey and explains why he continues to be optimistic about the future of Open Banking in the EU.

This week we meet Shiraz Ritwik Head of Banking, Payments, Insurance sectors at LatentView Analytics. LatentView Analytics Ltd. is a fast-growing digital analytics firms that helps companies combine digital and traditional data to drive digital transformation and gain a competitive advantage. In our conversation we discuss how organisations can build and optimize their data strategies to unlock the full potential of their data, and how to define a data roadmap based on an organisation’s operational maturity. Shiraz shares some insightful case studies on how advanced analytics and AI can be used to streamline financial processes, prevent fraudulent transactions & gain a connected view of data from marketing campaigns. Some great tips and insights so I do hope you enjoy this conversation with Shiraz Ritwik from LatentView Analytics.

This week, we meet up with Sergio Fogel who calls in from Uruguay's capital city Montevideo. Sergio is co-founder co president and chief strategy officer of dLocal, which is Uruguay's leading FinTech. dLocal provides cross border payments, infrastructure, connecting global merchants to customers in emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Establish in 2016, dLocal has become Uruguay's first fintech unicorn, and only the second Uruguayan company to list on wall street, which it did in June 21. In our conversation, we discussed dLocal’s startup journey, Sergio explains how dLocal continues to grow and impact the lives of many in the emerging market that it connects.  He also shares his view on the current market, and a lot more besides, so I do hope you enjoy this episode with Sergio Fogel from dLocal.

This week we are digging into low code technology with Dave Wyatt, Snr staff engineer at a large retailer. Dave is an expert Microsoft Power Platform Developer. The Power Platform is a fascinating and evolving platform. It’s a Azure cloud based platform that integrates Microsoft’s low-code solutions – Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, Power Pages - with Microsoft365 and Dynamics 365. It’s also where Microsoft’s co-pilot AI lives. It sounds and I think is a massive deal. I think its highly relevant to payments particularly when you think about digital transformation and finance automation. Automating the multitude of manual back-offices processes and replacing or at least upgrading the industry’s dependency on Excel. So, a lot to pay attention to in this podcast with David Wyatt. In our conversation we discuss how David got into engineering and low code software development via early experience in project management &implementation of bespoke IT solutions for business processes using SharePoint,Power Apps, Power Automate and Excel VBA. We discuss a lot besides, so I do hope you enjoy this conversation with David.

This week, we meet up with Caleb Avery, founder of Tilled which is a US based Payfac-as-a-Service provider. The company enables its customers to enjoy all the benefits of a fully registered payment facilitator program without the upfront cost, hassle, or liability. This model allows companies like software vendors, marketplaces, and SaaS providers to generate new revenue from accepting credit cards. In our conversation, we cover Caleb’s start up journey and discuss the state of the payment market and the increasing growth of the Payfac model and how it differs in the US and Europe

This week, we meet up with Uku Tomikas CEO of Messente Communications – a fats growing business messaging service provider based on Estonia. Messente helps businesses communicate with their customers securely and at scale, without worrying about the complexity of global messaging or the risks of fraud. Its customer base includes banks and insurance companies and other message-heavy industries that need a reliable way of contacting their customers. In our conversation, we discuss why business messaging has become business critical to banks. For example sending OTPs for payment authentication and secure account log in. Uku also expands on how Messente is at the forefront of fighting fraud by detecting and preventing scam messages which have become a key part of the criminals tool kit.

This week to mark the 30th episode of the EDC podcast, I’m joined by 2 special guests: Mark Beresford (Director and head of the EDC retailer practice) and Mark McMurtrie (EDC Associate Consultant). We also decided to go all out and record our first episode face to face in a London studio with video as well as audio. So look out for the video version which will follow this audio only podcast. We will place a link to the video on this page once ready. In this episode we are returning to the topic of payment orchestration which remains a super important trend in the payments industry, with a lot of activity to stay abreast of. In our conversation we covered the following topics which we have timestamped for convenience: - Setting the scene: 1min 45sec - Definitions: 3min 50sec - Merchant perspective: 9min 35sec - Build or Buy: 18min 48sec - Payment orchestration provider landscape: 26min 51sec - Future of payment orchestration: 40min 42sec - EDC guide to payment orchestration: 48min 21sec EDC recently published a Guide to Payment Orchestration which is based on a growing database of 50+ Payment Orchestration Providers. The guide is free and available to download here. ‍

This week, we meet up with Hans Puvogel COO of Parkopedia. This is a natural follow up to a previous episode on in car payment with Mercedes Pay. I find the transformation of the automotive industry totally fascinating. Its quite incredible how fast things are moving both in terms of migration from fossil fuel to EV vehicles but also in terms of the emergence of highly connected cars capable of supporting all kinds of in car commerce use cases. Founded in 2007, Parkopedia has become a key player in this emerging market. It is the world's leading connected car services provider used by millions of drivers, car manufactures and other organisations. And its not just parking as the name implies, today, Parkopedia helps drivers find and pay for petrol, fuel, EV charging stations, road tolls and other connected car services in over 20,000 cities across 90 countries. In our conversation, Hans expands on Parkopedia’s journey and we discuss how important and integral Parkopedia’s in house developed payment processing platform has become to the Parkopedia solution and proposition to its B2B customers. In particular I was struck by how much back end complexity the Parkopedia team have managed to solve for, providing technical, operational and contractual aggregation of all stakeholders across connected car value chain for a wide variety of different payment use cases.    Guest Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-hendrik-puvogel/ Company Website: https://business.parkopedia.com/home Company on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/parkopedia/

This week we meet up with Suresh Vaghjiani CEO of CLOWD9. Founded by Suresh in 2022, CLOWD9 is the world’s first cloud-based issuer processing platform. He is an experienced financial services executive having held senior roles at both FCA regulated and leading edge technology companies. He previously served as CEO of Tribe Payments and Managing Director and President at Global Processing which is now Thredd. Prior to this, Suresh held senior roles at FTSE companies Paysafe Group PLC and Kalixa Payments Group. In our conversation today, we discuss why the payments industry has been behind in moving to the cloud and examine the latest trends in the issuer processing market. We also discuss CLOWD9’s B Corp status, which again it is one of the first payments companies to have achieved, and discuss what it takes to build effective teams and a lot more besides. So I do hope you enjoy this conversation with Suresh.

About This Episode This week, we meet up with Nico Kersten, CEO of Mercedes Pay. On top of the transformational shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, Mercedes-Benz is also transforming itself into a digital software driven company where digital payments becomes an essential foundational layer. This is the focus of our conversation today. Launched in 2018 Mercedes pay operates the in-house digital Payment platform for Mercedes Benz and acts as the digital payments and fintech knowledge hub for the Group. Mercedes pay platform is now live in more than 40 markets, enabling transaction processing for Mercedes-Benz e-commerce products and services. In addition, Niko also shares his perspective on what it takes to successfully manage fintech innovation at a large traditional industrial company. About Mercedes Pay Mercedes pay GmbH as subsidiary of Mercedes Benz Mobility AG operates our in-house digital ePayment platform. Acting as the knowledge hub around digital payments, it plays an integral role in the mobility and digitalization strategy of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Mercedes pay was first launched in 2018 in selected markets. The platform is now active in more than 40 markets, where it enables transaction processing for Mercedes-Benz e-commerce products and services on a global scale. Depending on the market, this includes transactions via the Mercedes me connect store, the Mercedes me app, in-car payments or online down payments for vehicles as well as vehicle payments in full.   Episode Links  Nico's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nico-kersten-767500211/ Mercedes Pay Website: https://www.mercedes-benz-mobility.com/en/what-we-do/payment-services/ Mercedes Pay on LinkedIn: ‍https://www.linkedin.com/company/mercedes-pay-gmbh/ Another Of Nico's Recent Interviews: "Why shouldn’t cars be able to do what smartphones have long been able to do?” ‍

This week, we meet up with Barry Levett CEO of Mypinpad. MYPINPAD is a global leader in secure payments acceptance and personal authentication solutions using smartphones and tablets. Their proprietary and globally patented technology secures and protects the input of sensitive information on touchscreens creating a trusted environment. MYPINPAD’s innovative solutions removes the need for specialised hardware thereby reducing cost and complexity, promotes rapid adoption and leverages the connected capabilities of smart devices. Barry was previously founder of SmartPesa which merged with Mypinpad in 2022. In our conversation we discuss the merger and Barry shares his perspective on state of the softPOS payments market including channel convergence and need for deeper integration into workflows and processes.

This week, we meet up with Matthew Steinbrecher, VP Partnerships at Reach. Reach is a Merchant of Record provider which acts as an intermediary between a business and its customers, taking responsibility for the payments process and assuming liability on behalf of that business. This is a great educational episode. Matthew explains what the Merchant of Record model is and how it gives merchants access to local acquiring in foreign markets and the ability to process locally. This eliminates the need to establish expensive local entities, lowering fees, reducing false declines, and outsourcing fraud risks and global tax compliance. Matthew also shares his perspective on the latest trends in the MOR space.    Episode links: https://www.edgardunn.com/theedcpodcast Martin’s contacts: https://linktr.ee/martinkoderisch

This week, we meet up with Jose Manuel Peral, Chief Sales Officers at Devengo -  a Madrid based start-up founded in 2020 that offers embedded payments enabling fast automated pay outs using the latest real time payment infrastructure including SEPA Instant and UK’s Faster Payments service. Jose previously co-founded Easy Payment Gateway in 2013, from which he made a successful exit via a sale to Global Payments in 2020. He is also an active seed stage investor. Lot of tips and advice for payment and fintech founders. Episode links: https://www.edgardunn.com/theedcpodcast Martin's contacts: https://linktr.ee/martinkoderisch ‍