The scary things happening in the payments processing world today

The Silverflow team are back from Vegas and the biggest event in the fintech calendar, Money 20/20.

Following a great few days talking to lots of people in our industry, we noticed a few concerning recurring themes that kept coming up.

We’re on a mission to revolutionise the payments industry so, here’s what we heard on the ground and how we think they can be solved:

Banks are losing customers to fintechs

Fintechs are moving more and more into the banking space. They are adding Bank Accounts (Adyen, Square), Issuing cards (Adyen, Stripe, Square) and Lending (Adyen, Square). So banks don’t only risk losing their payment revenues, but also the customer as a whole.

Solution?

Banks should look at BIN sponsorship and/or improving their card processing capabilities as a way to retain their customers (a.k.a stickiness)

Poor data is costing more in fees

The card networks are implementing behavioural pricing which adds various processing fees when data sent is incorrect and/or inconsistent.  This is being done as a way to force acquirers to send consistent, correct data on every transaction.  The result is that data is becoming more important than ever for acquirers which means they are being held back by their legacy processors.

Solution?

Use a processor that can provide as much data as possible and will work with you to help analyse and interpret the data.  The end game is to send consistent data on every transaction thus reducing the chances for additional, behavioural fees being added to transactions.

Not understanding customer behaviour is costing revenue

Revenue is more important than ever for fintech, banks and merchants.  Customer retention and subscription/recurring products are tools that these organisations are using to generate and maintain revenue streams.

Solution?

Data is gold. The more data an organisation has, the better they can support recurring/subscription lines of business, as well as learn valuable information about their customers.  But having the data is not enough.  Knowing how to interpret and apply the data is just as critical as having access to it.

About The Author

Jonathan Fuller has held numerous client and partner-facing roles over the course of 18 years in payments at companies including  ChasePaymentech, RBS Worldpay, Adyen, Vantiv, Silicon Valley Bank and Gulf Oil.  Jonathan is leading the Silverflow expansion in the United States.

About Silverflow

Silverflow is a global payments technology company, founded by online payments industry veterans, with the mission to accelerate technological innovation in the payments industry. Silverflow’s cloud-based platform provides a state-of-the-art upgrade and direct access to the card networks for payment services providers, merchants and acquirers. Its intuitive product and scalable technology provides value, creates efficiencies, and drives new opportunities for all. Based in Amsterdam, Silverflow is backed by Crane Venture Partners, INKEF Capital and notable angel investors from Pay.On, First Data, Booking.com, and Adyen. 

Learn more: www.silverflow.co

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