Payment systems evolution keeps on coming. This week there were two trends: 1) business is restructuring and partnering with each other to expand their global coverage, and 2) a growing awareness that when choosing payment systems, the full costs need to be considered, not just the headline rates. 

1) Business is restructuring and partnering:

• There has been a host of mergers and acquisitions in the payment systems as the business consolidates and tries to scale up to meet the requirements of large MNCs, e.g. 
  • UK’s Worldpay was taken over the the US payments compay Vantiv
  • Paysafe is expected to be purchased by Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners
  • Worldline is acquiring Digital River Payments and First Data
  • Ingenico is to acquire Sweden’s Bambora
• PSD2 is generating an evolution in terms of digital identity management and control, customer authentication, KYC and compliance requirements see LetsTalkPayments article 
• Commercial cards services are developing rapidly as the service is integrated with other components in the B2B chain in various ways, see, and figure below:
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  • Source & Copyright©2017 - Accenture
• More P2P systems are expanding with the latest announcement that Skype is to partner with PayPal to launch ‘Send Money’ function
• PayPal is also partnering in other ways to expand their global coverage, e.g. Mastercard and PayPal have announced an extension of their partnership into Asia-Pacific
• Earthport, the cross-border payments network has partnered with Kotak Mahindra Bank, a leading private sector bank in India, to provide cross-border payment capabilities across select global markets
• Three more Chinese banks have joined Swift’s global payments innovation scheme.

2) Focus on total costs:

• Artem Tymoshenko, Maxpay in an article in THE PAYPERS, see, went through the well established mantra that retailers and any corporate considering a new payment card solution needs to look at the effective rate not the headline rate. The hidden fees and chargeback fees can change the picture completely.