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As for paying online, there is a big trend in retail- The banks may be in the background,
ing called BOL/PUIS, which means Buy Online, but they will continue to be the
Pick Up in Store. Everyone in retail is using an-
other buzzword, omnichannel, which encompass- dominant players in the payments
es this consumer behavior. Retailers are figuring world. They are not going away,
out how to reconfigure the shopping experience nor will they be compromised by
for the next generation of always-connected con- upstarts in the room.
sumers.
To make this work, it would have to be, as Jack Dorsey
• Everyone talks about payments becoming "fric- said at the show, "distributed, redundant, failsafe and
tionless and invisible." Amazon, PayPal and Star- ubiquitous." Since anyone can see the books, people could
bucks are the early success stories here, but it only buy or sell something once, and they couldn't claim
seems Uber has popularized this concept. When later they really didn't do that trade.
you leave the Uber car, you are done, no paying
the fare or tipping the driver, which is a pain Just as monetary authorities such as the Federal Reserve
when you use a traditional taxicab. This is what aren't going to let bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency
"frictionless" really means. The sentiment is that create money and manage the money supply, so it will
consumers want "frictionless" experiences at ev- be with blockchain. At some point, the bank regulators
ery merchant, but I am not sure about that, par- will become involved, although this has not apparently
ticularly for high dollar payments. happened yet, except to the extent government does not
want to see enhancement tools for money laundering,
• A "culture of collaboration" exists within this international drug couriers, etc.
space: everyone is looking for a partner to work
with. Put another way, everyone is looking for the In addition, it is interesting to see what wasn't discussed at
"value prop." People are interested in what vendors the show. I didn't hear any talk about the current state of the
and speakers have to say because they are looking merchant community, which, as I see it, is that merchants
for partners, which does not seem to be the case are frustrated, stymied, and downright mad about what
at other payments shows, such as NACHA, AFP, they see as arbitrary and capricious demands from the
ETA, BAI, etc. card brands for PCI, EMV, QIR, wholesale replacement of
hardware, certifications, etc.
• The banks may be in the background, but they
will continue to be the dominant players in the We have whole industries saying they might not adopt
payments world. They are not going away, nor EMV (for instance, the restaurant industry) and another
will they be compromised by upstarts in the huge industry (petroleum) saying it cannot afford EMV.
room. They will carefully select vendors who of- Furthermore, I constantly hear that security issues are a
fer products and services that will enhance their big barrier to ecommerce adoption, and security risk is top
customer experiences, and I predict that they will of mind for consumers, who do not feel confident in the
be the winners in this space, ultimately. ability of merchants or processors to manage and control
it. Based on the breaches that now seem commonplace,
Merchants and new tech why should they?
Also, I must say something about blockchain. While it seems My hunch is Money20/20 will be even bigger next year ?
mysterious, it really isn't. It is also called a "distributed possibly topping 12,000 attendees and 500 vendors. If you
ledger system." Data is stored in a transactional database are crafting a new product, or just trying to keep up with
that is publicly distributed across many machines. others who are doing so, put this on your calendar.
Imagine if you were a bookkeeper and your books could
be open and available to anyone who wished to transact Brandes Elitch, Director of Partner Acquisition for CrossCheck Inc., has
in your space. There would be complete transparency, so been a cash management practitioner for several Fortune 500 com-
all the buyers and sellers could see every record of every panies, sold cash management services for major banks and served
transaction, anytime. as a consultant to bankcard acquirers. A Certified Cash Manager
and Accredited ACH Professional, Brandes has a Master's in Business
It seems a bit abstract, but think in terms of businesses Administration from New York University and a Juris Doctor from Santa
that keep ledgers today: the title company when you buy Clara University. He can be reached at brandese@cross-check.com.
or sell a house, the stock exchange when you buy or sell
stock, the foreign exchange and wire transfer desks at a
bank, factoring accounts receivable – you get the idea.
If a buy-sell transaction is accompanied by a title, or a
registration, or a serial number, it can be tracked because
it is in a registry somewhere.
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