Exclusive interview with Shane Fitzpatrick, managing director - Chase Paymentech Europe

Shane Fitzpatrick oversees all business for Chase Paymentech Europe Limited including sales, marketing, customer support, product research and development, legal and finance. In addition, he is charged with the development of strategic partnerships to penetrate new markets and channels. His areas of expertise include international payments, billing, asset utilisation, security, fraud management and vendor/partner selection.

Speaking exclusively to The Paypers, Shane Fitzpatrick offers some insights into the companys growing presence, services and strategy. 

The Paypers: Could you provide our readers with a brief insight into your vision? What is your main value proposition and how is it delivered?
Shane Fitzpatrick: Our vision and main value proposition is to put our customers at the centre of everything we do and think: their success is our primary goal. To deliver on this goal, we must have a deep understanding of the business drivers and the needs that guide our customers. Therefore when I was charged with growing Chase Paymentech’s European business, I put a significant focus on building a team of former online executives able to help make this a reality. As a result, we have a dedicated European team with extensive merchant-side knowledge of the payments industry allowing us to provide our customers with expert opinion to solve any challenges the market throws at them.

Secondly, merchants correctly expect their payments to be processed on time and without error. This is the baseline that all merchants should expect of their payments provider. My experience as a merchant was that this wasn’t always a reality and so every day at Chase Paymentech, we are focused on taking care of basics first. We deliver reports that integrate with the major ERP systems. In short, our twenty-five-year heritage in the sector and the fact that in 2009, over 50% of all global Visa and MasterCard e-commerce transactions were processed by Chase Paymentech underlines the fact that we have the proven technology to ensure success.

Chase Paymentech’s expertise and experience coupled with our purpose-built, flexible Customer Not Present (CNP) payment solutions puts us in the ideal position to meet the needs of merchants now and in the future.

The Paypers: The range of payment methods offered by your company includes both credit card-based options and alternative payment forms. According to various studies, while traditional payment options such as credit cards continue to be of primary significance, the market share of alternative payment methods like PayPal are increasing. Do you think that payment alternatives will succeed in establishing themselves and usurping transaction volume from credit cards?
Shane Fitzpatrick: My fundamental view is that cards as a primary payment method are here to stay. Most of the major markets in Europe including France, Italy, the UK and Spain are quite similar in terms of credit card usage and payment habits of online consumers. While in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands, credit is simply not the preferred way to pay full stop – let alone online – and so alternative methods of payment are popular. Furthermore, given the current financial situation and a tightening of credit generally, we see a shift from credit card usage to debit cards.

In addition, as the online payments market is growing (11% p.a. according to Forrester’s Western European Online Retail Forecast, 2009-2014) this means that all payments will likely grow in absolute terms, but not necessarily in percentage of market share. Our experience has shown us that merchants will choose to offer the payment offering that best suit their unique business needs while also taking into account local cultural and geographic factors.

Cost is obviously another consideration. Historically too, we have seen merchants influence the transaction volumes through the payments experience they offer to consumers. So fundamentally, the market will really decide the growth and adoption of payment types.

The introduction of International Maestro next year will see approximately 310 million debit cards enabled for e-commerce. We believe with the general shift in preference moving toward debit instruments away from credit, a significant uptake for this method of payment will be experienced in future years. Watch this space.

The bottom line is that no matter how your customers choose to pay, your payments provider should support you. At Chase Paymentech we aim to stay ahead of the latest payment trends so our customers don’t have to. We continually monitor the marketplace to assess what payment methods will bring value to our clients and we are committed to constantly expanding the choice of payment methods we offer.

The Paypers: Chase Paymentech Europe Limited has recently released a survey regarding certain challenges faced by UK companies in CNP payments, or more specifically, in handling multiple currencies and foreign cards. According to the results, 30% of the businesses involved in the research had international growth plans within the next one-to-two years, but most did not have the payment systems in place to support European customers properly. In this context, do you believe that a single uniform European system for online payments or interconnecting several online payment systems in different European countries would fulfil the SEPA ideal?
Shane Fitzpatrick: It is important that a merchant considering growing its business through international sales is aware of how the complexities of payment processing in various markets can impact their business. Yes, we believe that SEPA has and is going a long way to fulfilling the integration of multiple methods of payments across multiple countries. We anticipate the growth of debit cards usage online to make an impact here. However, for the foreseeable future, there will continue to be disparate systems and local methods of payment. This makes it even more important than ever to work with an acquirer who has the expertise and familiarity with all these complexities to advise appropriately and provide the proven technology to run your payments. Merchants should seek to understand their target market level, on online commerce in that market, most popular payment types and their associated costs (many of which are hidden). At Chase Paymentech we believe in sharing this intelligence with our merchants so that they can make the best decision possible for their business.

The Paypers: What are your thoughts about the current state of online payments in the US and worldwide?
Shane Fitzpatrick: Our industry is a deeply complex but thriving one. It’s a good place to be. In this environment there are a number of newcomers and many players. I believe a period of market consolidation will continue with many recent M&A announcements released. New entrants and consolidation will continue. Regulation is another area of change within our industry both in the US and Europe. Regulation objectives are generally positive, they seek to ensure appropriate controls and governance structures are in place which serves to benefit all. Although regulation can place an extra administration burden on our industry overall I welcome it as it seeks to protect all and to keep the market in check. In Europe we have seen the Payment Services Directive come into force in November 2009. US regulators appear to be following this lead. Chase Paymentech in Europe is a Payment Institution regulated by the Financial Regulator.

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