DECEMBER - 20208MY OPINIONINThere is an energy in today's payments world that I haven't seen before in my 20 years in the industry. The sheer scale of the innovation and collaboration taking place is driving unprecedented interest from new and existing players. Yet the speed of transformation raises its own challenges whether navigating new regulations, improving customer experience or considering how to best share data; the sector must be aware of these challenges and be ready to adapt as needed.Technological innovation is encouraging established players to rethink the traditional boundaries of their products and services while also enticing new challengers to enter the market. This innovation is also enabling more collaboration across businesses, and partnerships remain at the forefront of new developments. Examples of this By Chris Fletcher, Global Head of Digital & Channel Partnerships, Western Union Business SolutionsTech, Trust And Teamwork: How Innovations in Banking are Changing Financial Servicesinclude Western Union's recent partnership with Visa and Mastercard's collaboration with the P27 Nordic Payments platform.With increased collaboration, there lie additional challenges, such as how to seamlessly and securely share sensitive data between players or how to adapt to new regulations such as PSD2. Encouragingly, however, the industry is creating new solutions for old problems with increasing vigour. It is this truly innovative thinking that inspires me.Take for example, the recent launch of PayCode by Amazon and Western Union, an example of a company with a long-established physical reach joining together with a digital-first business. Launched earlier this year, PayCode allows people to shop and pay for Amazon items using local currencies that previously would not have been accepted, such as Chilean peso or Kenyan shilling. Shoppers in these markets can now pay for their Amazon purchases in cash. In emerging economies, card and bank account penetration are much lower than established markets, and this partnership neatly helps to even things out.Collaborations should also have a focus on mutualism, where long term relationships are formed for a collective benefit and open banking has been
< Page 7 | Page 9 >