Leading banks and merchant acquirers use data as the “glue” between their payments strategy and accompanying commerce-related services.
It’s no secret that the payments industry has undergone, and is experiencing, rapid transformation. Transactions are no longer simply transactions, with banks holding the dominant position in providing payment services to both consumers and merchants alike. In the recent past, when payment processing was just that, facilitating the transfer of funds between customer and merchant, banks provided their merchant clients with the payment processing services that their customers expected — to shop, pay and send money securely.
However, in recent years, there has been an accelerated shift to consumers using digital payment channels, with global FinTech and payments-processing companies, like Fiserv, FIS and Global Payments +TSYS, becoming the definition of scale players in the payments industry.
In response to increased competition, more stringent regulations and the need to reduce costs, some banks have outsourced their core payments platform technology and operations to these nontraditional payment providers. But, while some banks may have outsourced the transaction-focused share of the payments business, banks and scaled merchant acquirers are, in fact, best positioned to thrive as the payments industry enters a stage that moves beyond the transaction itself.
