Leaders In Payments

A self-driven man with a passion for innovation that changes the marketplace and “doing payments right,” One Inc. CEO Ian Drysdale is a true leader in the payments space, with a resume that includes some of the biggest names in payments. So, how did he get his first job at PNC? He simply cold called the CEO and asked him for it.

For those of you that may not know, One Inc. is a leading digital payments platform for the insurance industry. They facilitate upwards of $20 billion in payments annually for the property and casualty space, with two dominant types of transactions: inbound and outbound. The former refers to premium payments such as car insurance and the like, while the latter refers to claim payments similar to what you would see in an accident or damage claim. They are currently growing exponentially at a rate of 50% per year and their ultimate goal is to digitize the more than $1 trillion of paper checks floating around the insurance industry in the U.S. alone.

As far as what differentiates them from their competitors, not only do they have exceptionally deep knowledge of the complexities of the insurance industry, they provide a full digital experience to their clients that accounts for so much more than just payment processing. According to Ian, One Inc. is “solving for all the use cases of insurance companies – not simply moving money in and moving money out.”

Tune in to hear about Ian’s climb to the top and his expectations for the future of our industry – including the evolution of cryptocurrency and the dramatic shift towards real-time payments and authentication. 

In his own words, Ian believes that payments “can be done wrong or right and if done well, they become a massive differentiator in the marketplace.” Don’t miss this one!

As we continue this month with our focus on Open Banking, our pulse is on Trustly – a well-established open banking platform that enables merchant commerce, via ACH, in a manner that reduces fraud and promotes a more seamless payments flow. 

 Today, I talk with Chief Legal Officer Kathryn McCall about Trustly as both a rapidly growing company and a true leader in our industry. For those of you that may not know, the Trustly brand was launched in the U.S through a merger with local platform PayWithMyBank. To say that this partnership was well-matched is an understatement as the already-established Trustly brand facilitated a significant growth spurt for the company’s overall market share. And since 2018, Trustly has grown exponentially from just 20 employees to 300!

 Hearing Kathryn talk about the nuances of this merger is a fascinating glimpse into the difference between the U.S. and EU ecosystems. Both are well-established, but the EU is much more effortlessly driven towards the open banking concept largely because they were early adopters of the bank transfer model. Their ecosystem has been thriving on it for decades. The U.S. ecosystem, on the other hand, still gravitates largely towards card and (though less prevalent now) check payments. Not to mention, the challenges the EU presents with cross-border rules and regulations offer an interesting spin on cross-border commerce. 

 Tune in to hear how Trustly has had to adapt in order to establish and grow their global footprint, as well as how the benefits of open banking differ from the merchant versus the consumer side, and what the future looks like as we charge forward towards automation and digitization.

For those of you looking to quantify and understand all the benefits of open banking, you’ve come to the right place! In this Pulse of Payments episode, I speak with Trustly VP of Enterprise Growth Ross McFerrin – a self-proclaimed payments geek admittedly obsessed with the innovation and disruption within our dynamic ecosystem. 

Open banking, by definition, is the use of open APIs that enable developers to build applications and services around the financial institution. So, what do companies like Trustly provide in the way of innovation and disruption? Simply stated, they make ACH a viable method of payment within the digital commerce space. And this is a big win for merchants because it offers them a payment alternative to card that is less risky and more cost effective.

 In the ecommerce space, Trustly thrives as an alternative to card because they can guarantee payments with no chargebacks and at a cost that is much lower. When it comes to travel, merchants appreciate the level of security and confidence experienced on both sides of the payments loop and the fintech space also benefits from open banking options to help facilitate various offerings including NACHA compliance, loan underwriting, RTP disbursement and the funding of crypto wallets. 

 But, truly, Trustly offers benefits on both side of the payments equation. Merchants realize material savings from a payments standpoint, have the capacity to deliver a payments experience that resonates well with the younger generations and can even benefit from future-proofing their business as real-time rails become more ubiquitous. Consumers, on the other hand, unlock value in the form of more benefit-driven incentives offered by the merchants they choose to transact with. 

In this episode we'll answer - how is open banking shaping our industry and what do we have to look forward to in the very near future.

Have you ever wondered how boat racing relates to being a CEO in one of the most dynamic industries our global ecosystem has to offer?  Well, my guest this week has the answer!

A boat racing enthusiast from Bavaria, Fraugster Co-CEO Chris Mangold will be the first to tell you that running a successful company has many parallels to leading a successful sports team. In fact, he gives three core principles that he has carried from the water to the office as a means of ensuring his employees have the tools necessary to cross the corporate finish line:

·       You will always have a lot of maneuvering.

·       You never know what’s coming.

·       And you have to face the challenges you encounter together, as a team!

So, whether you put him on choppy waters or corporate soil, Chris has what it takes to lead his team towards success. 

Fraugster is a regionally agnostic, global platform that manages fraud in real time through AI and machine learning. With this technology, they are able to enable merchants in the ecommerce space to make the best possible business decision when it comes to fraud prevention and chargeback management.

Hear Chris talk about the nature of fraud management now and in the future, including what impact blockchain and cryptocurrency may have on the state of fraud in our ecosystem. A self-proclaimed “growth manager,” his expertise in our industry makes his story a fascinating one! 

When it comes to the most payment-driven markets in the global landscape today, India is always top of mind – and for good reason. As a country, they lead the marketplace in digital payments (with more than 100 different digital payment options) and proactively foster a dynamic ecosystem ripe with opportunity for innovation.

My guest this week is CashFree Payments Co-founder Reeju Datta and his knowledge about this diverse payments landscape is vast. For those of you that may not know, CashFree Payments is an online platform that helps companies accept payments via more than 100 different payment methods, with one single integration. And 100 different digital options is pretty significant – especially in comparison to our local ecosystem that remains dominated by credit, debit and ACH.

According to Reeju, CashFree Payments was created to solve one major problem: how to facilitate cash payments at the time of delivery for e-commerce merchants. And in just a short amount of time, the company has managed to facilitate 3-4% of all bank transfers in the country and 10% of all bankcards. 

As for their competitive advantage, they offer a more diverse approach to payments that looks beyond payment collection to more complex forms of commerce, including bi-directional and multi-directional payments capabilities, with a disbursement step that’s easy to integrate and automate.

What does the EVP and Head of Enterprise Payments at the 12th largest bank in the country have to say about the past, present and future of fintech? A lot! 

Ken Gavrity has had a fascinating career and is a wealth of information when it comes to the current challenges the industry has faced on its way towards digital dominance and the benefits that comes with the kind of autonomy that only automation can bring – especially in the payments sector. In fact, when asked how he defines the competitive edge his company brings to the marketplace, he defaults to his core strategy for success: solving problems before, during and after the payment cycle. 

KeyBank markets to both the commercial and retail consumer with a national presence that saturates the retail market and a vertical marketing strategy for the commercial side that includes healthcare, real estate, industrial and technology as some of their main sectors. They have an operation that sustains approximately 17,000 employees and a portfolio of assets totaling $180 billion dollars. 

Regarding where he sees the industry going in the next 2-3 years, automation, embedded banking and cryptocurrency are the top drivers he holds a focus on. In fact, according to Ken, 8% of “cardable” spend was going through software platforms in 2019. But this number is expected to jump to an impressive 40% by 2025 – making the embedded banking sector a big trend to watch for on the horizon.

And as far as they key component to making any business successful, he coins culture as “the competitive advantage that can sustain any company over time.”

This is definitely a data-driven podcast with pearls of wisdom you don’t want to miss. 

Ever wonder what the journey may look like from small-town farm to big-time fintech? Well, I have the answer in this week’s podcast! IDology CEO Chris Luttrell is my guest, and her story is a fascinating one.

For starters, when she’s not spending time overseeing one of the most credible fraud-prevention solutions in the industry, she’s raising livestock and food on her small farm in northwest Georgia – not far from where she grew up. She began paving her climb up the corporate ladder straight out of high school and went to night school for her undergraduate degree. And this semester, she will graduate with her second Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – and not because she had to – because she wanted to.

For those of you thinking “overachiever,” you would be right! And this innate drive has served her well throughout her journey in the fintech industry.

For those of you who may not know, IDology is a well-established identity verification provider within the industry that offers a robust solution for identity verification and fraud prevention, which allows customers to meet KYC compliance while mitigating fraud and risk simultaneously.

Originally hired on as their 10th employee and the sole product manager for the company, Chris has quite literally worked her way through every department, including product, fraud, marketing, security, technology and client relations until completing her climb in her well-deserved position as CEO beginning in 2020.

According to her, it’s been a “fun roller coaster ride” and she looks forward to ensuring the success of our industry in the future with solutions that help prevent some of the more popular types of fraud that come with the digital age, including mobile fraud, synthetic verification fraud and the like. 

A sports enthusiast from northern England with a passion for music and a resume that includes both Sony and Virgin records, Tappit CEO Jason Thomas has taken his love for entertainment to the fintech space and created a name for himself within the industry.

With a client portfolio that includes some of the biggest organizations in event management, including the NFL, MLB and MBA (just to name a few), Tappit is a global payments solutions company that offers cashless payment options driven by data analytics. So, what differentiates them from all the other cashless solutions out there (besides their client list)? Tappit provides all their clients with micro-level data analytics to identify valuable and influential purchase patterns that enable a marketing strategy driven by personalized metrics and not just generic offers.

So, whether it be a live music venue, a professional sporting event, or even a college campus, the ability to not only offer cashless but also have data to drive your commerce is invaluable. In fact, according to Jason, “the only way to break the barrier down between the company and the consumer is to analyze the data.”

Tappit also offers a range of solutions that include mobile, RFID and even app-les web options. Another bonus? The company is completely agnostic so they can work with any third-party their clients may have in a manner that provides a truly white-label interface.

A Poughkeepsie NY native with a self-proclaimed passion for “understanding how all the pieces work functionally, operationally, strategically and globally,” Tassat CEO Ron Totaro will be the first to tell you that he has learned more from his failures than his successes. However, the successes have been abundant.

Beginning his career working for several big industry players such as American Express and AOL, Ron is no stranger to driving innovation at a more rapid pace. In fact, he drove Tassat at a pace so rapid that three years ago, they went to market as the first official B2B blockchain payments business in the world.

So, what do they do? In a nutshell, Tassat enables the tokenization of U.S. dollars and deposits so that once a dollar is converted into a token on the blockchain, it can be sent instantaneously to another wallet that exists within the same system. According to Ron, it’s similar to a “Venmo-like transaction – only industrial-strength grade for the B2B space.”

Tassat utilizes permission-based blockchain to equip each individual bank customer with the capability to tokenize U.S. dollars into a digital wallet. And in mid-December, the company launched the first  and only member-owned blockchain network that will facilitate real-time bank-to-bank transfers from within the network.

But, according to Ron, “it’s not just about selling blockchain but, rather, about creating the ecosystem that is going to be most effective for each individual bank.” And his professional pillars for success? Transparency, accountability, collaboration and teamwork.

How can a Master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in machine-learning algorithms secure you a CEO spot in Fintech? Well, the story is an interesting one.

 In this week’s podcast, I talk with Justt CEO Ofir Tahor about his journey through the payments industry. What does it look like to be driven by a professional passion to take complex problems and simplify them through technology and innovation? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

 An Israeli native who officially caught the startup bug back in 2005, Ofir enjoys the challenges that come with building something from the ground up and watching it manifest. He founded his first company in 2011 – an ecommerce solution for businesses to sell their products and services across the social networks, which at that time were green and growing rapidly.

 He later parlayed all his experience into a new business model that targets online business specifically and uses smart technology to create tailor-made solutions to successfully manage their chargebacks. And now, this startup venture has turned into a rapidly-growing company with the highest success rate in the industry and a portfolio that reads like the who’s who of payments.

 The company name is Justt and this comes from their drive to bring justice to the chargeback process and balance the scales for merchants when it comes to recovering their funds. And given the fact that Justt is able to tout a 60-80% success rate (from a 20-30% industry average), you can see how they can afford to promote a business model that only collects revenue when success is achieved and money is recovered.