2nd October 2024
Grosvenor House Hotel
Menu
2nd October 2024
Grosvenor House Hotel
Paynetics is a trusted e-money institution and provides all-encompassing payment services across the UK, Europe and beyond. We offer our customers a full range of payments solutions all under one roof, including BIN sponsorship, issuing, acquiring, transfers, digital banking platforms, loyalty engines, mobile payments and SoftPOS. Our mission is to simplify payments and pioneer the role of Europe’s leading regulated enabler to power both established brands and the next generation of fintechs.
We are a growing team of renowned payment experts with a passion for fintech, who have helped to introduce ATMs and chip cards to entire nations, re-establish financial systems of whole countries, and who focus on functionality as well as user-friendliness. We have recently launched our rich product stack in the UK and continue to develop our global expansion plans, and set out to be the first choice of enabler for our customers.
Innovation and operational excellence is sewn into our DNA: we introduced the first software-only POS solution and achieved the fastest integration of Mastercard Digital Enablement Services (MDES) in Europe. All while safeguarding a secure, flexible and reliable payment infrastructure as a principal member of Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT, SEPA and soon UnionPay International.
You can find out more about us on our website, explore our views on the future of fintech on our blog, or get involved in our community conversation via our Twitter or LinkedIn pages.
Ahead of the EP Awards on 26th November, we caught up with the sponsor and presenter of our Best Market Expansion Program category, Rob Anderson, Managing Director of Paynetics Global.
Can you please share an overview on Paynetics and your role in the Payments market?
Paynetics is a trusted e-money institution and provides all-encompassing payment services across the UK, Europe and beyond. We offer our customers a full range of payments solutions all under one roof, including BIN sponsorship, issuing, acquiring, transfers, digital banking platforms, loyalty engines, mobile payments and SoftPOS. Our mission is to simplify payments and pioneer the role of Europe’s leading regulated enabler to power both established brands and the next generation of fintechs.
We are a growing team of renowned payment experts with a passion for fintech, who have helped to introduce ATMs and chip cards to entire nations, re-establish financial systems of whole countries, and who focus on functionality as well as user-friendliness. We have recently launched our rich product stack in the UK and continue to develop our global expansion plans, and set out to be the first choice of enabler for our customers.
As MD of the global business, I head up the relationship with Global Programme Managers for B2B and B2B2C clients. My payments career has been focussed on the global expansion of financial institutions, so this award category is very near and dear to my heart.
Why is the EP Awards an important platform for Paynetics?
The EP Awards is such an important platform for Paynetics due to the strength of the EPA network. Our relationship with the team and the support they have given has been so important to us as a company, especially as we are growing so rapidly. We were honoured to be invited to be category sponsors this year, and to be able to champion those in the industry that are working so hard to drive change and push the boundaries of innovation. We’ve definitely got one eye on entering some of the categories for ourselves in 2021!
What was the reason for Paynetics to sponsor this category?
Paynetics was founded in Bulgaria and we have an established site of operational excellence based in Sofia. There, we are regulated by the National Bank of Bulgaria and power hundreds of e-money programs across diverse verticals. That said, until recently we were not widely known outside of Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), but we now have a presence in several new strategic markets, including a notable launch in the UK which included our acquisition of former Wirecard UK & Ireland corporate assets. We are the only issuer that was able to safely transition these customers in the timeframe that was required.
To say that we have accelerated our growth is an understatement – we are going global! And that’s where I come in; last year we started to focus on the Programme Manager market and I’m responsible for continuing our Program Manager growth and starting to globalise the operation across our B2B and B2B2C markets.
What is Paynetics currently doing to further support innovation in the topic of this category?
Innovation and operational excellence is at the heart of what we do: we introduced the first software-only POS solution and achieved the fastest integration of Mastercard Digital Enablement Services (MDES) in Europe. All while safeguarding a secure, flexible and reliable payment infrastructure as a principal member of Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT and SEPA.
Paynetics is built to scale and our exciting global growth plans continue to explode. As an example, we are soon to extend our portfolio via our China UnionPay licence to drive further innovation in this category. We see Asia and its surrounding markets as an integral strategic step forward for us as we deliver further on our market expansion and Program Manager innovation plans.
You can find out more about our various projects on our website, explore our views on the future of banking on our blog, or get involved in our community conversation via our Twitter or LinkedIn pages.
Ahead of the EP Awards on 26th November, we caught up with the sponsor and presenter of our Best Banking or Open Banking Initiative category, Mike Peplow, CEO of Paynetics UK.
Can you please share your role in the Payments market and what was the reason for Paynetics to sponsor this category?
Paynetics is a trusted e-money institution and provides all-encompassing payment services across the UK, Europe and beyond. We offer our customers a full range of payments solutions all under one roof, including BIN sponsorship, issuing, acquiring, transfers, digital banking platforms, loyalty engines, mobile payments and SoftPOS. Our mission is to simplify payments and pioneer the role of Europe’s leading regulated enabler to power both established brands and the next generation of fintechs.
As the newly appointed CEO of the Paynetics UK business, I have been leading our strategic growth direction in this sophisticated financial services market, including the high profile acquisition of some of the Wirecard UK & Ireland (WUKI) corporate program assets. The business continuation of these WUKI programs and the safeguarding of consumer funds have been our absolute priority throughout this project. By partnering with us, these customers can now rely on a safe pair of hands and will have the opportunity to grow, develop and flourish with our investment and ongoing support.
Paynetics Group has done a tremendous job already by creating a solid platform and a leading ‘one stop shop’ model, which we are now delighted to roll out in the UK. Our incredibly experienced senior executive management are all experts in the fields of banking, financial services and technology. Together, we have a passion for our customers, we embrace innovation and program diversity, and we understand fintech and Banking as a Service (BaaS) in particular. We pride ourselves on working closely with our customers, who come from a range of different backgrounds, regions and sectors to enable them to go to market with compelling and successful programs.
We’re proud of our award-winning banking platform phyre, which is available across Europe, and have recently extended this BaaS by launching our own localised 3rd generation digital banking and loyalty platform in the UK. Our banking applications are available for white labelling with ApplePay and GooglePay enabled, sterling reward engines, program management and CRM tools built in as standard. We can offer simple plug and play BaaS solutions right through to fully customisable applications, all from our own home-grown code and backed up by our experienced service team. More exciting announcements to follow soon as we continue to invest in this platform.
We’ve designed these platforms in-house to provide a complete ‘one-stop-shop BaaS’ solution to power both established corporate brands and the fintechs of the future. As a company on the front line of innovation in the banking sector, we believe we are a natural fit to present this Best Banking program category award and congratulate the winner on demonstrating a commitment to pushing this sector forward.
What’s happening in the industry that has made recognising excellence and achievement in that category so significant?
As we all know, this year has brought the unexpected fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and established the new normal. This has pushed more of us online and mobile first when it comes to how they access their financial services. There has equally been spikes in contactless usage over cash and chip and PIN services.
There is still a lot of work to be done to respond to the huge shifts taking place in the payments industry. And there is a fine line to tread between technological prowess and financial inclusion, with many people in the UK and globally still technically unbanked and in need of digital BaaS and banking solutions to access money quickly and securely. This year has shone a light on the level of support that is required to make sure that inclusivity is a foundation of the industry, but it has also highlighted the vast amounts of work being done to drive innovation and tackle these new challenges head on.
In 2020, we think that any cause for celebration is a justified one! It’s great to see the hard work of the teams developing these cutting-edge solutions take centre stage, and reward their efforts in the banking and open banking sector in particular.
What is Paynetics currently doing to further support innovation in the topic of the category?
Innovation and operational excellence is sewn into our DNA: we introduced the first software-only POS solution and achieved the fastest integration of Mastercard Digital Enablement Services (MDES) in Europe. All while safeguarding a secure, flexible and reliable payment infrastructure as a principal member of Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT, SEPA as well as UnionPay International which is coming soon.
When it comes to banking, Paynetics constantly invests in innovation in this area. A recent example of this is our partnership with Bulgarian American Credit Bank, with whom we launched a new digital wallet platform – B@CB Pay. This creative solution leverages phyre’s digital banking platform and the Paynetics range of payment services, including its payment tokenization technology. It shows how we can support those companies at the heart of the financial services sector, many of which may not have the resources to develop a digital offering in-house, to digitalise their services and ultimately better serve their customers.
We are a huge believer in the strategic partnership and relationship model. We have recently teamed up with Visa to leverage its Token Service and offer new payments solutions to businesses across Europe. As part of the next stage in our partnership with Visa, we will be able to use Visa’s technological capabilities and product expertise to offer a competitive proposition to both large and small businesses across Europe, and to develop comprehensive and competitive services for businesses looking to provide next-generation financial solutions for their customers.
We continue to work in strategic partnership with Mastercard and Visa to drive innovation in banking forward and launch groundbreaking, first to market programs. We are excited to extend our offering and choice globally through a new partnership with UnionPay International.
We continue to embrace the possibilities that digital banking presents to our customers and we are exploring the possibilities and choice that open banking can bring to our own growth and development as a business and to that of our customers. You can find out more about our diverse projects on our website, explore our views on the future of banking on our blog, or get involved in our community conversation via our Twitter or LinkedIn pages.
