At the SBC Summit Barcelona – Digital in September industry experts gathered to discuss the future of payment methods.
The first topic of discussion was alternative payment methods and how the classification has changed over the years. With Isabelle Delisle, Global Head of Payment Solutions at Pinnacle, stating that previously anything that was not credit cards was considered an alternative payment method, this has now changed to be more inclusive of methods such as crypto.
“I’ve argued the problem with crypto is that everyone argued at the start that it was more than it was. It was made into this daunting and terrifying thing but it actually isn’t that complicated. That has been bad for crypto as a whole as there are many people who are scared of it due to it being over complicated at the beginning.”
Disagreeing, fellow panelist Lior Segal, Former Director of Payments at The Stars Group, stated that he believed both credit and debit cards were making a comeback and are once again being considered APMs.
“Alternative payment solutions will become the traditional ones in the future. Alternative methods will be credit and debit because everyone is using something different now. It is the APM of the old world and it will be for the new one too.”
Vasilije Lekovic, Director of Gaming at Trustly, weighed in on the discussion: “In my view the APM’s should be methods that aren’t commonly used in the market. Alternatives should be any payment method that are disrupting the common ones.
“I think the future of what makes APM’s smart is innovation, speed and security. It helps solve problems that both consumers and merchants are facing today. Payments need to be simple and seamless but it’s not enough to help move money anymore, APM’s need to become more than just payments, they need to offer help to merchants with KYC or to help users skip the verification process. I believe this is the future of APM’s.
“There will be lots of opportunities for APM’s to use lots of technologies to improve. When it comes to bank payments there is the open banking initiative which is opening up capabilities for improvement. I think there are several markets across the world where we can bring payments closer to consumers. The new technologies will help payment providers to offer more than just payments. It will help make a seamless experience for the user regardless of industry, and the new technologies and innovations are making the future exciting.”
You can watch the full panel session here.
