UL Shares The Three Buzzwords For An Ideal Payments System

The PYMNTS team caught up with experts in the payments field to ask them their views on industry trends, predictions for the coming year and what their ideal payments system looks like.

UL‘s Director of Innovations, Maarten Bron, spoke about the big mobile trend of 2015, what he expects for the coming year, and the three key factors his ideal payment system needs. 

PYMNTS: WHAT ARE THE BIG TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING IN PAYMENTS IN 2015?

MB:  If you look at 2015, mobile payments have taken off in a way that the whole industry has been anticipating for quite awhile now. If you simple take a look at the ever-growing list payment systems, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Chase Pay, and other kinds of payments systems, you can see it is definitely becoming mainstream.

PYMNTS: WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR PAYMENTS FOR NEXT YEAR?

MB: There’s only so much space in a crowded market space, yet we see more and more payment systems. Payment in itself is not a valued proposition. If you really want to give purpose to a payment instrument you have to place it in a commercial environment. Consumers may be compelled by the convenience if you offer frictionless payment and you will have an audience, there are many countries that can serve as an example. But if you really want to look forward to 2016  those payment technologies that manage to invent themselves seamlessly in a certain commerce environment could potentially be more successful than others. A nice example is Uber. People do not like Uber because of the payment function, but because of the commerce experience of hailing the cab, getting in, seeing what your ETA is going to be, and by the time you get out you just paid without seeing it. I expect to see more situations where payments get embed in a certain commerce experience.

PYMNTS: WHAT DOES YOUR IDEAL PAYMENTS SYSTEM LOOK LIKE?

MB: I think there is no one answer to that solution, but I’m a strong believer in that the killer app of mobile phones is convenience. Whichever payment system that is frictionless for the consumer to do whatever they want to do is going to be the winner. The ideal payment systems is a payment system that can be used anywhere and based on a mobile phone. It’s all about mobile, local, and personal; those have been the buzzwords for the past few years.