Take Advantage of the Evolving Nordic Issuing Market

ACI Worldwide Podcast Series

Today you are going to look at-take advantage of-the evolving Nordic issuing markets for banks and other financial institutions in our various markets. So, lets go ahead with that. So, we are going to cover 5 areas in this webinar. First we are going to look at some trends in Europe, then, we are going to look at the Nordic trends. The challenge in this issue is in the Nordic trends, which is a combination of both the trends that are affecting them and some potential strategies for success. And then lastly we are going to tell you is about ACI, which, my colleague, Fredrick Rotvolnoph will do.

So, payment for a long while didn't see a great deal of innovation in terms of these magnetic stripe card move to chip in the 90's. But really, from there, and online started, but really it's since 2000 that a number of new players have entered the market. So this slide is to show that the banking and payments landscape is now changing at a great pace. Increasing consumer demands for quick and easy access to accounts via mobile, the web, etc, have lead to a greater reliance on technology for banks and consequently, innovation such as mobile and e-commerce are developing at a faster rate than the traditional card brace systems. New players, new devices, and new channels will all challenge these traditional payment methods. This is an exciting time for the industry.

However, the increasing consumer demands for speed and easy use in the finance sector is putting banks under a great deal of pressure. Banks are required to ensure that N-commerce and e-commerce transactions run seamlessly and are secure. All the while, facing growing competition from new banks and new payment institutions which are now allowed under the regulation that's in place - and more on regulation later-and also new players, be these retailers also taking banking licenses, new banks and Metro Bank in the U.K. are an example of this and ING direct, and corporates such as Google, Facebook and Paypal. And most banks perceive these as the biggest threats to their business because they don't have the system limitations and legacy systems that banks have, and so can produce innovative offerings quite quickly. I mean, an example of that is the Google Wallet.

So, these are the trends that are shaping payments in Europe. And these are a subset really of what I mentioned earlier in the global system. So, take for example, we have already spoken about new competitors, and some of the examples are there. Regulation is increasingly shaping payments and we will discuss that in a bit more detail later. Price pressure which comes in two-fold, one in terms of the customer will require some incentive to take up a new technology, and also reductions in interchange. And we are seeing consolidation in the marketplace with banks joining together and also, aquirerers, PSP's and processors coming together. NFC is still in the marketplace, and has really been the coming next big thing for about 5 years now. It's still likely to come soon. I think it's being moved forward perhaps a bit more slowly than most players wanted. The smart phone has developed and the e-wallet is an integral part of things going forward.

However, again, there is some discrepancy there. Visa and Mastercard both have a wallet, so do different retailers and so does Google, and really the concern here is for the customer, in terms of how many wallets will the customer actually want? And what will he want in his wallets? And how will this work? So, will he want loyalty cards, his bank card, his credit card, and more particularly how does he decide which card to use in each case with the wallet. So the customer wants to work in a multi-channel environment now. He wants, in some situations, to still use the card, he wants, in some situations, to pay by cash, and even in some markets, check. Any player now has to offer a multiple part of channels to the customer base. There is still pressure to reduce fraud in Europe. EMV was a tremendous success when it was implemented, but it was designed for the face to face environment. And there will be new challenges, and we've seen when internet banking came along, and internet shopping came along, the frauds took advantage of the weakness that was perceived there, which, had to be addressed by particular codes and etc.