Each Wednesday, PYMNTS.com profiles a different top executive from the leading companies in payment innovation.
Name: Ashish Bahl
Title: CEO
Company: Acculynk
What I’m working on now…Establishing PaySecure as the industry standard for Internet PIN debit – worldwide
My crowning achievement is…Bringing PIN debit to the Internet with an easy to use, easy to implement software-only service
Industry Association Awards…2005 AEA Entrepreneur of the Year, 2005 Deloitte Fast 50 winner, 2006 Eagles Innovation Award winner
Education…B.S. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, MBA, Carnegie Mellon University
When I’m not working, I like to…Spend time with my family, adventure travel and collect wine
My favorite payment factor is…Innovation in alternative payments, mobile payments and of course, my debit card
I think the next big thing in payments is…Competitors to the classic card associations that take advantage of other processing networks: Twitter, Facebook, mobile and Internet PIN debit
Cash is…Cool if you’re a collector of coins
Checks are…Something that should be banned from the retail environment, especially grocery stores
NFC will…Take a long time to develop due to the significant costs to change the infrastructure
EMV will…Create a lot more fraud on the Internet, which Acculynk is in a position to combat
P2P is…An exciting business. The next wave of growth will be finding a mobile system that is scalable and addresses usability and security concerns
I’ve learned from my mentor…In payments, nothing happens overnight. Patience is key – and building a quality system that consumers will use
Bio: Ashish Bahl, Chairman and CEO of Acculynk, is head of the only company in the U.S. to offer a software-only service for PIN debit payments on the Internet, PaySecure®. Founded in 2008, Acculynk offers consumers the convenience and security of using their PIN debit card online, with no enrollment or redirection from the merchant website. To date, Acculynk has partnerships with 8 EFT networks to process PaySecure transactions, over 1,500 financial institutions enabled and 1,000+ unique merchant websites.
Ashish is a payments industry veteran. In 2000, he founded Harbor Payments, a recognized global leader in the electronic invoicing industry. Ashish served as the CEO of Harbor until 2006, when the company was sold to American Express. Previous to Harbor, he also founded Exchange Place Solutions (EXPS), later sold to iXL.
As the only provider of a software-only service for Internet PIN debit, Acculynk is uniquely positioned to leverage the worldwide debit growth to reduce fees and fraud on electronic transactions. PaySecure is currently available in the U.S. but international introduction is slated for 2010. The product also has applicability in kiosks, mobile, P2P payments, and online banking and credit card authentication.
Ashish holds a holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Visit http://acculynk.com/payFirst/payFirst.html to see a video of a PaySecure transaction
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