Alon Eliya Bigler, Credorax: "Our vision is to continue to be a global bank for the merchant"

How would you define your company`s approach to innovation?

In 2014, Credorax solidified its place as the first, truly global ‘smart’ acquirer. The company earned this title after receiving a license to process payments in Japan, making it a practicing bank in over 28 countries worldwide. This in itself is extremely innovative as we are currently the only ‘pure play’ acquirer to achieve this goal.

Our vision is to continue to be a global bank for the merchant. One that enables any merchant - regardless of its size or geographical location – to profit from untapped, new consumer ecommerce markets that were not available to them prior due to regulatory or technological obstacles.

Unlike other acquirers which are mostly traditional banks, Credorax is a technological company turned into a financial institution. Therefore we bring innovation to everything we do, including creating the first global single and unified payment platform.

We believe this platform is the ‘missing link’ in cross-border ecommerce. We recognise the need for a truly global acquirer with local BINs in all major jurisdictions plugged into the same platform, along with the quickest most agile merchant onboarding processes and the most robust BI platform to allow true business analytics.

Credorax brings this innovation to the table and as we continue to expand globally, we will always continue to do what we do best: specialise in creative yet ‘tailor made’ technological solutions in the acquiring space.

In November 2014, ModusLink and Credorax entered a strategic alliance. How does ModusLink`s value proposition fit into your strategy?

I believe this answer is two-fold:

• a – Credorax is a ‘pure play’ acquirer and we prefer to remain the ‘engine’ behind the scenes, this enables us to support ModusLink’s offering without interfering with their ecommerce branding and business – which clearly they are experts at given their highly successful track record across the globe.

• b – Credorax likes to cooperate with providers that give a full end-to-end and global ecommerce solution to merchants. We particularly believe that ModusLink’s e-business and supply chain full management along with the Credorax global coverage complement each other perfectly.

Earlier in 2014, Credorax received a license from Japans Ministry of Finance for its cross-border payments platform. In your opinion, what’s needed for (cross-border) ecommerce success across this country?

In general Japanese local consumption is in decline, due to demographic factors (aging population etc.) therefore Japanese companies and merchants are looking more and more to sell cross-border and export. Therefore the Japan market which was quite closed and ‘in house’ in mode is changing and evolving.

Credorax fills the need for merchants and companies wishing to ‘reach out’ and sell overseas. By doing that Credorax opens the door also to Euro players wishing to extend to the Japan market, as the cross border traffic flows both ways.

Could you describe three major developments or trends in payments for Asia Pacific region? Do you see any new payments models developing in this region that are new or different from what we see in the West?

First and foremost, the ecommerce market size of Asia Pacific has overtaken the North American ecommerce market and will keep growing.

To answer your specific question about trends/developments in the region, I would say we are seeing the following:

• Third-Party Payment Providers: An emergence and further growth of third-party payment providers, particularly in China, that are active in the online acquiring space. We do see that the online acquiring space is mainly dominated by third party payment providers and this trend will continue to grow (meaning non-traditional banks and financial institutions).

• Mobile Payments: Mobile payments will experience an even stronger growth, as the majority of CNP transactions in China are made by mobile -unlike Europe and the US where the dominant medium is still the computer.

• Regulations: The Asian region will continue to undergo major changes in payments regulation policy. Expect to see major changes with regards to payments regulation in China, including more foreign enterprises to enter the Chinese payments market next year.

In addition, we also believe Japan will extend its cross-border ecommerce activity as merchants are motivated to increase incoming flows by exporting beyond the limited local market.

What are your expectations from the MPE event?

MPE is one of the major key events for the payments industry from all over the world. Our expectations from the event are two-fold.

1. Firstly, we come to meet existing and new strategic partners and PSPs in order to reinforce our existing alliances and form new ones.

2. Secondly, MPE is a large and extremely professional ‘Payment Seminar’. As a technology-centric Acquirer, we are invited by the show organizers each year to share our new technology products that are innovating the industry.

Connecting back to your first question, on a macro level, our vision is to continue to roll out our single, unified platform to enable cross-border e-commerce. However, on a micro level, locally within Europe, our core business focus is to continue to provide our partners and customers with products that can enable them to seamlessly and quickly profit from e-commerce.

As such, Credorax has been invited to discuss our ePower Onboarding API. This exceptionally friendly, web-based onboarding API was developed especially for PSPs and their ecommerce & mcommerce merchants. The API enables fast and intuitive onboarding in an automated, secure environment, allowing for extremely quick MID setups – in most cases less than a few days. This ultimately leads to faster lead-to-cash for merchants, which is especially essential for small, micro and sole traders who can’t afford even a day without processing.

About Alon Eliya Bigler

Alon Eliya Bigler is Head of Strategic Sales Programs at Credorax, leading and mentoring the companys APAC Sales teams, spearheading the companys POS and mPOS strategies and managing new strategic partnerships.

About Credorax

Credorax is a Merchant Acquiring Bank licensed by the MFSA as well as a PSD financial institution under the European Union. Recently awarded ‘Merchant Acquirer of the Year’, Credorax is designed as a technology-focused and customer-centric acquirer that specifically caters to the needs of ecommerce and mcommerce merchants and payment provider partners. In 2014, Credorax solidified its place as the first, truly global ‘smart’ Acquirer. Credorax earned this title after receiving a license in Japan, now making it a practicing bank in over 28 countries worldwide.