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CoverStory

Trusted ISO, MLS partners capture additional information and integrate RDC with
QuickBooks, Peachtree and other accounting software.
Payments industry history is replete with examples of wide-
scale migrations, from paper to electronic data capture, and "Early on, financial institutions were concerned about
from mag-stripe to contact and contactless EMV (Europay, file size," he said. "They used to say, 'I need x amount of
Mastercard and Visa) cards. At each milestone, merchant time to transfer an image.' Now it doesn't matter; images
level salespeople (MLSs) have been the trusted partners are transmitted instantly. The architecture moved to thin-
who have helped merchants embrace change. client applications with next to no software installed on a
computer."
Fintech startups can't develop relationships with 8 million
U.S. merchants on their own, Oxman noted. Their only In 2010, smartphone cameras had more than enough
hope is to rely on the merchant sales channel. The ETA technology to capture check images, creating an inflection
facilitates partnerships between fintech companies and point in mobile banking and unlocking new technology for
U.S. acquirers; the resulting collaborations are devised banks. "For consumers, remote deposit capture eliminated
to produce safe, secure, reliable and easy-to-use payment a trip to the bank," Leekley said. "For corporations, it
processing technologies. "As technology companies come accelerated cash flow, automated receivables and mitigated
into payments, they recognize there is no better way to reach risk."
merchants than through the ISOs," he said. "At bottom, they
are the merchant sales channel, the best pathway, bar none, U.S. financial institutions process approximately 20 billion
to reach merchants." checks per year, but Leekley expects checks will one day
Yesterday's paper be entirely electronic. RDC has evolved into a payment
platform that supports numerous forms of payments, he
Some payment veterans recall the first big migration stated. In addition to changing the payments flow, moving
from paper to electronic technologies. Others remember the point of capture and consolidating bank relationships,
standard-issue directories of fraudulent payment cards. RDC enables end users to process payments on their
Merchants would thumb through dense columns of tiny schedule, from anywhere. "They're not tied to a banking
numbers to see if the credit card in hand was listed in "the system," he added. "The power of payments resides with
big bad book." the end user."
Automating AP
"Payments started out as something you did at the end of a
transaction," said Jeff Wakefield, Vice President Americas, "The B2B side of payments is a $36 trillion market that is
Sales Enablement at Verifone Systems Inc. "Before electronic still paper-bound," said Karla Friede, CEO of Portland,
payments, we tried to solve the fraud problem by replacing Ore.-based Nvoicepay. "Accounts payable is the last spot to
the giant manuals filled with bad card numbers with get automation; we try to simplify the process and reduce
electronic machines." friction."
Older terminals had limited capabilities; even multi- Banks offer a big pipe that can impose additional manual
application devices were running out of memory, Wakefield effort on businesses, because not all suppliers accept
said. As Verifone evolved, we knew we needed to adapt payments in the same way, Friede noted. It's not unusual
quickly to update software and EMV kernels, he added. for a business to have 10,000 suppliers and process 100,000
payments a year, creating numerous payment flows and
It became important to have open machines with rich processes.
development environments and the ability to connect when
needed to get updates and make changes quickly. Verifone Friede stated she would like to see true "epayables" replace
designed Linux-based, open source development kits with traditional purchase card products that are not fully
built-in hooks to enable a seemingly magical ecommerce automated and require clients to keep track of numerous
experience uninterrupted by manual checkout. Wakefield suppliers and remittance methods. Nvoicepay works with
calls it "making payments go away." suppliers on behalf of clients, identifying efficient payment

Remote deposit capture methods, taking calls, tracking invoices in flight and
providing technical assistance to reduce error rates.
John Leekley, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based
RemoteDepositCapture.com, has seen check processing "No one likes printing checks and walking around getting
evolve from paper-based systems to complex, electronic approvals and signatures, or overnighting documents
platforms. As first generation, single-feed scanners evolved to signers, stuffing envelopes and putting checks in the
into high-speed, browser-based systems, remote deposit mail," Friede said. "The world of AP [accounts payable]
capture (RDC) became a multifaceted e-payment platform. is becoming a paperless world, facilitating electronic
Thin-client solutions replaced CD ROMs, reducing transactions regardless of location or size."
customer acquisition costs and enabling businesses to

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