Merchant Payments Ecosystem is one of the biggest events in the e-commerce and payments calendar. Looking at the agenda ahead of next week’s conference in Berlin, we are looking forward to catching a number of great speakers and the topics under discussion.
We’ve selected 5 trends to look out for at the event.
Future of the payment ecosystem
The agenda is packed with sessions that explore how the payments ecosystem will evolve, including the adoption of alternative payment methods, new payment strategies, and the opportunities and risks predicted to emerge from the sector.
As per previous years, the growth of mobile payments and m-commerce strategies will be well covered during the event, with an emphasis on eliminating the friction from online payments made both via mobile payment methods, and online via a mobile device.
FinTech’s role in optimising merchant payments
A key talking point at the conference focusses on how FinTech companies both new and old are addressing key pain points for payment service providers. By providing them with innovative technologies that optimise legacy infrastructure and streamline processes, their merchants are able to offer their customers cheaper, faster, and more varied ways of paying for their goods and services.
European regulatory changes
PSD2 appears on the agenda on all three days of the conference, demonstrating what a huge impact it is set to have on the industry. As well as providing payments professionals and merchants with insight into what PSD2 will mean for them, it also explores the opportunities that come with XS2A – a part of the regulation that means that European banks will need to provide payment account access to accounts as of January 2018.
In addition to PSD2; AML, KYC, interchange fees, EU passporting, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are also anticipated to be hot topics.
Integration, optimisation, and collaboration
Streamlining processes in a way that is efficient, cost effective, and of benefit to the end user can often be achieved more easily through partnerships. The unbundling of services that were once controlled exclusively by incumbent banks, which are now being offered by FinTechs, has helped PSPs and merchants to keep pace with consumer demand in an increasingly digital world. We expect sessions on Open APIs, cloud solutions, and partnership strategies to be well attended.
Cross border expansion
As a business that specialises in B2B cross border payments, we are very pleased to see so much time being dedicated to cross border expansion this year. Many of the sessions relate to executing effective cross border payments strategies, with insight into fees, taxes and regulations that merchants looking to expand into new territories may not have been fully aware of.
