ISO & Agent

Financial institutions in the U.S. are not only under tremendous pressure to determine how they’ll become a part of the new Federal Reserve-driven faster payments ecosystem, but also what the shift to immediacy will mean to their current operating model, long-term strategy, and future relevance to consumers and corporates, writes Bruce Lowthers, COO at FIS.

Since payments are often integrated directly into business tools, it's time for ISOs to take a deeper look at the new landscape and re-evaluate business strategy, according to Angelo Grecco, chief business development officer at CardConnect.

By reducing, or completely removing, paper-based billing through automation, your company can drastically reduce its environmental impact, writes Colleen Ciak, head of eAdoption at Billtrust.

DCC is popular with payment processors and merchants because it almost effortlessly boosts profits, gouging an often one-time consumer instinctively comfortable and receptive to paying in his familiar home currency, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Venture.

India’s Unified Payment Interface is a model that other developing economies can emulate, as they look to move away from cash-centricity and overhaul their own payments infrastructure in pursuit of speed, security, auditability and financial inclusion, writes Anoop Villait, managing director of corporate development at Transpay.

Resourceful crooks will relentlessly probe systems, processes and people until they find a weakness or an opportunity. That weakness is the magnetic strip that still exists on all EMV cards, according to Nathan Horn-Mitchem, senior vice president and chief information security officer at Provident Bank.

The Middle East presents a rare opportunity for digital payment innovators to access a populous and high-spending region with good levels of connectivity, writes Tom MacDonald, financial and business services practice head for Global Growth Markets.

Although Visa Claims Resolution will require merchants to learn some new rules and routines, the changes are good news for merchants who know what to expect, writes Rafael Lourenco, executive vice president at ClearSale.

AI relies on catching the malware itself at a later stage, once it begins to operate in the system, and that's not enough to combat breaches and payment systems, according to Mordechai Guri, chief science officer at Morphisec.

Fintech companies such as WorldFirst, TransferWise, OFX, and WorldRemit give people more cost-effective means to make cross-border transfers, writes Jon Dela Cruz, a researcher for iCompareFX.com.

Brand and access to capital can suffer if companies don't take proper care of data from payments and other online activities, according to David Thomas, CEO of Evident ID.

Implementing an electronic payments solution isn’t about replacing one payment method (checks) for an electronic one—as in abandoning checks for ACH, writes Ralph Perdomo, a research analyst at Nvoicepay.

Options include multilayered security solutions that incorporate verification via passive biometrics, without adding friction, by evaluating a consumer’s inherent behavior online during the transaction process, writes NuData Security's Lisa Baergen.

Employees still fall for phishing attacks, but there is technology that can remove the offending code before employees even view emails, writes Aviv Grafi, CEO of Votiro.

The cryptocurrency and blockchain related failure rate is comparable to other technology startup categories and manageable with the right due diligence, writes Cahill Puil, founder of the consultancy Byte Media Group.

The timing is right, both for the technology and for Amazon, which has already demonstrated excellence on required customer journey points like a widely adopted Amazon app, writes Chris Ventry, a director for BRG Corporate Finance.

Until the technologies provide significant savings, cryptotokens threaten financial stability, and the risks of open access to central bank balance sheets are worked out, retail CBDCs are a long way off, writes Collin Canright, a fintech consultant.

The technology behind how payments are being delivered is advancing quickly. Unfortunately, standards and systems aren’t evolving fast enough to keep up, writes Greg Cohen, president of Paya.

Venmo is for consumer payments, but that same simplicity can benefit corporate payments, writes Jay Dearborn, president of corporate payments at Wex.

POS payment encryption products are widely available and have been for many years, from technologies designed to secure card data from the point it is entered into the payment terminal, writes Ruston Miles, founder and chief strategy officer of Bluefin Payment Systems.