Few people have the financial and payments services industry experience of Paul Garcia. His 30-year career and board service spans the breadth and depth of the business in the United States, Latin America, and abroad.
Through the years, Garcia has held multiple management and executive management positions. Today he is chairman, president, and CEO of one of the world’s leading payment processing companies. His tenure at Global Payments started when he took on the CEO position at NDC’s Atlanta-based eCommerce line of business in 1999. NDC eCommerce began operating as Global Payments Inc. in 2001.
Transaction Trends recently caught up with Garcia as he prepared to speak at this month’s Annual Meeting. We asked him for a quick take on the future of the merchant acquiring business and how Global Payments plans to
compete in it.
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Motivating the Young and the Restless |
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They’re energetic, they’re smart, and they are ready to sell. But without satisfying work and professional development opportunities, Generation Y may take its drive and talents to the competition. For several years, the American business community has been buzzing about a labor shortage caused by the droves of baby boomers due to retire from the workforce. Specifically, human resources experts have called for an overhaul in management practices so that employers can appeal to the wants and needs of a younger generation of workers.
That’s easier said than done for some companies, where veteran managers may struggle to relate to their younger colleagues. Gen Y workers (roughly, those born in the 1980s and 1990s) have different work ethics and career expectations than their parents. They crave challenge and aim to work faster and better than their colleagues. They also want their managers to be actively engaged in their professional development. In fact, many will delay marriage longer than their parents did and try many different careers before they find one that suits these needs.
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Tipping Point for Technology |
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In the 1990s, smart cards were supposed to revolutionize the electronic transactions industry in the United States. They didn’t. Then a few years ago, biometric authentication was supposed to lead the way to a more secure future. That didn’t happen either. Now, contactless cards have found a niche at the corner McDonalds, pay-at-the-table technology promises to outsmart the card skimmers, and mobile phones seek to replace the wallet for the Blackberry crowd. Are the days of the lowly magnetic stripe payment card finally numbered?
The writing may very well be on the wall for the ubiquitous swipe card. The challenge for today’s ISOs is to determine which new options will have staying power, deliver durable advantage, and improve their bottom line. Consumer
preferences, security issues, the impact on the processing infrastructure, the advantages for merchants, and cost are all factors to consider when adopting these new product offerings to your portfolio.
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Winning & Losing with Cash Advance |
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While cash advance programs are the latest breakout idea for brick-and-mortar retailers, not everyone is convinced they’re a winning strategy. Some view cash advance as a get-rich-quick scheme that builds little long-term business. Others say that with careful planning and attention to key relationships, cash advance can boost merchant portfolio valuation.
Cash advance is hardly a new concept: In the late 1970s, American Express began advancing money to merchants in the hospitality industry. The practice gained momentum as entrepreneurs realized this specialized program didn’t have to be limited to one market and seized upon an opportunity to provide financial benefits to a variety of industries. It quickly picked up steam and started attracting a broader range of merchants Its impact on the industry, however, has not been widely documented.
Today, decreasing margins and increasing competition have attracted the ISO community to cash advance to replace lost income. And ISOs also need a product offering to retain merchants lured away by companies offering funding.
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Legal: Changing Tides Overseas |
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The borders of Europe’s electronic payments market are opening as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative radically restructures how payment services are provided. While opportunities abound for payment services providers, only those who understand the initiative and its market implications can position themselves to cash in.
SEPA is a next step in the politically driven evolution toward a common European financial market. To date, that evolution’s most notable event has been the creation of the “Eurozone”—a group of European nations that now use the euro.
SEPA seeks to streamline electronic payments in much the same way that the euro simplified currencies across Europe. It applies to all countries in the Eurozone—Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain—and also affects other members of the European Union that have not adopted the euro (such as the United Kingdom), as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
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