Embracing embedded payments’ full potential

Fin­tech is tra­di­tion­al­ly dom­i­nat­ed by men, but Enfuce leads the way with two female co-CEOs. How is diver­si­ty mov­ing the indus­try for­ward?

It’s all about hav­ing role mod­els. For those grow­ing up today, you want to see that, as a female, you can be a bank CEO or head a finan­cial start-up or chal­lenger. But it’s big­ger than that too; it’s about deliv­er­ing diver­si­ty of all kinds. The mind­set should be any­one can become any­thing. Moni­ka and I, as female founders in finance, want to sup­port and encour­age every­one and show there are no lim­i­ta­tions. By encour­ag­ing and ensur­ing diver­si­ty among fin­tech lead­ers from all dif­fer­ent back­grounds and dif­fer­ent parts of the world, you gain diver­si­ty of think­ing to cre­ate new ser­vices that solve new prob­lems across the indus­try.

Why are embed­ded pay­ments so impor­tant?

Any­one who gen­er­ates trans­ac­tions at some lev­el will need to use embed­ded pay­ments if they want to pro­vide a great ser­vice in the future. Funds move direct­ly between the two par­ties dig­i­tal­ly with­out need­ing a plas­tic card. The ser­vice provider can either choose to give the trans­ac­tion insight and rev­enue to oth­er third par­ties, or take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to own their trans­ac­tion flows and reduce the fees they pay.

What prob­lems will embed­ded pay­ments go on to solve?

Mobil­i­ty is a grow­ing area. For exam­ple, a sin­gle app could allow tourists to access all the var­i­ous pay­ment meth­ods and apps now need­ed to trav­el in cities on trains, tubes, met­ros, and bus­es – or to pay for elec­tric charg­ing and park­ing spaces if in a car. Embed­ded pay­ments would link into all these indi­vid­ual ser­vices and users then pay from one place via top-up cred­it.

What are the key chal­lenges right now for embed­ded pay­ments?

This tech­nol­o­gy is now a hot top­ic with­in fin­tech; it’s not a buzz­word. As more dig­i­tal ser­vices are devel­oped, this method offers a user-friend­ly, acces­si­ble, and attrac­tive propo­si­tion for trans­act­ing. Orig­i­nal­ly fin­tech was just expense man­age­ment and lend­ing and then came the dig­i­tal banks. Now we have the likes of mobil­i­ty, cryp­to, and pay­roll tech, plus many more emerg­ing ver­ti­cals, and those work­ing with­in these might not have an exten­sive back­ground in the tra­di­tion­al finan­cial indus­try. If embed­ded pay­ment tech­nol­o­gy is the right direc­tion for them, part­ner­ing with a ser­vice provider might be the bet­ter option rather than devel­op­ing this area them­selves.

How do you see embed­ded pay­ments devel­op­ing over the next five years?

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty will have a huge influ­ence. We are going to own less and rent more, from cars to clothes, and embed­ded pay­ments will be cen­tral to pay for those ser­vices quick­ly and eas­i­ly. This method is also becom­ing vital with­in devel­op­ing coun­tries where pop­u­la­tions are skip­ping the tra­di­tion­al evo­lu­tion from cash to plas­tic pay­ment cards. They are mov­ing straight to dig­i­tal wal­lets and embed­ded pay­ments because as tel­co infra­struc­ture improves, more apps are launched, and dig­i­tal embed­ded pay­ments become the norm.

What advice do you have for busi­ness lead­ers look­ing to adopt embed­ded pay­ments?

It is impor­tant to work with a com­pa­ny who puts your busi­ness goals at the cen­tre of any sug­gest­ed solu­tion. Usabil­i­ty is what it’s all about; reduc­ing the clicks to make a pay­ment, and most com­pa­nies won’t have the ded­i­cat­ed knowl­edge or tech­ni­cal skills. It is also crit­i­cal to ensure all pay­ments are com­pli­ant with local and inter­na­tion­al laws and reg­u­la­tions to pro­tect the busi­ness and its end users. A trust­ed part­ner has this exper­tise, allow­ing lead­ers to stick to their core busi­ness and not need to be experts them­selves.

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it enfuce.com

Pro­mot­ed by Enfuce