The Paypers sat down with EPCA Summit chairmen Douwe Lycklama and Harry Smorenberg to discuss the main topics, themes and trends that will constitute the focus of the 11th edition of the EPCA Summit.
Why EPCA Payment Summit?“In Rome we celebrate our 11th edition of the Summit. We have grown into an important international meeting place for payment and transaction professionals. Apart from a networking opportunity we focus on building a program that will bring professionals inspiration. By sharing best practices, new visions and out-of-the-box ideas we add value to new thinking and permanent learning. All essential to stay on top of developments and key to individual career developments of professionals”, says Douwe Lycklama, CEO of Dutch payment consultancy Innopay.
Adds Harry Smorenberg, CEO of Smorenberg Corporate Consulting and EPCA Summit co-Chairman: “As was the case for the previous editions of the conference and perhaps even more so in 2012, the EPCA Summit focuses on the rapidly changing landscape of the transaction services industry. Payments constitute a big part of the latter, but the transaction services industry is much broader than payments. It also includes the traditional EPCA topics of mobile, e-identity, e-invoicing and of course online payments – topics with which professionals in this field should keep up to date. The traditional paradigms of silo-ed businesses are replaced by a networked world of ever connected devices. And yes, payments are just a ‘small add-on’ for the user”, Smorenberg adds.
What’s new at EPCA 2012 in Rome“We will introduce ‘learning tracks’ on various topics within the transaction services industry, including mobile, e-identity, e-invoicing and of course mobile payments”, Harry Smorenberg says. “We see a strong convergence of technology, functionality and architecture ahead and we feel the financial industry should (or could) take the lead. This is also why we choose the ‘Digital Agenda’ as main theme, with the absolute support of the EU Commissioner Ms Neelie Kroes. This will be the first time EPCA will be in Rome. We have established a great cooperation with ABI Eventi as host in their prime location: Palazzo Altieri, right in the center of Rome”.
As a very hot market trend, mobile payments feature prominently in the EPCA Summit 2012 agenda. How is mobile doing? What topics connected to the mobile financial services ecosystem can we expect to see heat up discussion panels during EPCA Summit 2012?“Still slow when it comes to ‘pervasiveness’ of payments. We see a lot of activities and hype, but payments as such are not likely to have a strong business case compared to what is already out there (e.g. cards) in the more developed world. Payments are complex because you always need to solve the ‘chicken/egg’ problem, you need merchants and buyers. Therefore we see payments via mobile most likely to come bundled e.g. with loyalty services and with social services”, Douwe Lycklama says.
“In the developing world mobile payments do solve a clear problem of access to bank and therefore remote banking. The rationale behind successful cases in Asia and Africa is quite easy to see”, Lycklama adds. “These cases are truly learning points and should be monitored and evaluated permanently. Quite often the success factor is dominated by the (local) context (need and conditions) and cannot easily be transferred to other markets. EPCA Summit excels in finding commonalities and truly new aspects of today’s developments in order to share the real learning curve with international professionals around the globe”.
Is identity really the new money?“Yes it is”, Harry Smorenberg replies. “The lack of and the total diversity of identity on the internet is increasingly a huge problem as we do more and more business via the internet. Identity and all assurances surrounding it, is the core component of every payment where payer and payee are not in each other vicinity. Identity is the most valuable part, thus adding the most value. It will become one of the most defendable franchises for regulated entities”.
“At the same time privacy concerns will grow and users will demand more control over their data”, Douwe Lycklama adds. “It is here where breakthrough innovations will take place. For sure: todays social networks are just ‘phase 1’. Trusted parties, such as banks, are well positioned to facilitate this important new market. So far unfortunately, we see little movements as banks are occupied with other priorities, often driven by regulators. We like to push this development on the agenda!”
E-invoicing: why does it take so long?“Going to the moon succeeded faster! E-invoicing is rapidly growing in clearly defined supply chains, but it is still far from a generic networked infrastructure as we know it from paper mail and of course e-mail”, Lycklama states. “The key issue here is achieving true interoperability from a service point: so not focusing exclusively on the technical side but adding the business model and addressability perspective. Also psychology plays a decisive role: all the hundreds of players do not share the vision of a networked infrastructure. Everyone is fighting for his own turf, instead of cooperating on the essentials: addressing (for receivers and senders, e.g. the 10 digits number for GSM) and business models. Maybe we can learn from ‘game theory’? E-invoicing is also a two sided market, so a lot can be learned from payments and telecom markets as well”, he adds.
Did we make progress on e-payments in the past year?“E-commerce is the only growing retail segment in the total retail market. Merchants have spoken up in 2011 for improved payment services, i.e. less fraud and lower barriers for sales. Their main message is the lack of identity, which is the core problem when it comes to e-commerce. Any service that increases trust during an e-commerce transaction can be charged for towards merchants, because it increases their revenue”, Smorenberg says. “The payments industry has a standing invitation to work with merchants and consumer organization to introduce improved payment services and processes. But also here cooperation between payment providers is key. The recent investigation by DG Competition into this matter has not helped the industry’s appetite for collaboration, and we are afraid this will stall innovation even further”.
A message from the Chairmen of the EPCA Payment Summit 2012
Douwe Lycklama“Although markets and market conditions are not ideal due to the crises we are experiencing, every individual should try to overcome this. My drive and advice is not “to go with the flow” of the spiral of negative energy. EPCA Payment Summit will charge you with new energy and bring about new creative thinking, lessons and collaboration. It opens up your world and enables you to share that energy again at your workplace”.
Harry Smorenberg“We are on the brink of 2012. As payment professional one can have hopes and new ambitions for the New Year. Id like to invite all professionals to invest to bring knowledge and new visions back as delegate at EPCA Payments Summit 2012. Help to change the industry and add value making new dynamics work as our world will keep getting smaller, more global. Cooperation in a networked society is key for our business model. EPCA Payment Summit is a vital part of that”.
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