They Said That: Notable Quotables From the Week of July 8, 2024

PYMNTS reporters, analysts and writers do dozens of interviews every week to bring you the editorial package that is PYMNTS and PYMNTS Intelligence. While they all inform our coverage, some of them rise above the others in terms of candor and insight.

With that spirit in mind here are our notable quotables for the week ending July 12.

We started the week with an exclusive interview with Visa Executive Vice President, Global Head of Value Added Services Antony Cahill, who told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that growth in his division comes as issuers look to reimagine their transaction and account experiences as payments economics and customer expectations are changing across the world. From “Visa Aims Value-Added Services at Helping Banks Capture Gen Z Loyalty”: “We are very intentional about our approach. Building capabilities in-house is often our preference due to our robust engineering resources. However, acquiring external technologies or forming strategic partnerships are equally pivotal when they offer us a significant competitive edge or faster market entry.”

Next, we pivot to regulation and our interview with Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards. From “Ingo Payments’ Edwards Says Regulatory Tightrope Will Be BaaS’s Proving Ground”: “Regulatory orders and regulatory scrutiny have taken a front seat in the industry. We’ve gone through a bunch of these cycles over the last 23 years, but this regulatory environment is back to where the bank sponsorship [model] is getting tighter and more difficult.”

In our panel discussion on “How the World Does Digital: Business Models and Innovation Drive Consumer Engagement,” we liked this quote from economist and report advisor David Evans: “One of the interesting observations from the study is how many opportunities there are for digital entrepreneurs to come up with better ways of engaging people. Why are people not using voice-activated devices at home? Well, my conjecture is probably because they’re not very good. But there are a lot of opportunities now with AI where that’s gonna change. I think you have the same situation with telehealth. It makes a lot of sense that that would be successful, but it hasn’t been successful yet because people haven’t come up with the right business model.”

“Discover: Tokenization Removes Friction for Card-Not-Present Transactions” covered the momentum and use cases behind what is one of the hottest topics in payments right now: tokenization. Valeri Vanourek, vice president of digital products at Discover® Global Network, said tokenization is emerging as a double-duty asset for digital payments, enhancing payment security for merchants, issuers and consumers as they interact across digital channels without introducing any friction into the process.

“Consumers are much more aware of data and the importance of protecting it,” Vanourek said. “They understand their personal and financial data can be stolen and used for fraudulent purposes. The more consumers understand the security and benefits behind their payment methods, the greater trust they’ll have.”

“Financial Solutions Bridge Gap Between Women’s Health and Wealth” was the latest installment in our work defining the intersection of women’s wellness and financial health.

“Women spend on average 8% less time on their healthcare each month than men, which negatively impacts their health outcomes,” Synchrony Health and Wellness CEO Beto Casellas said.

“Financial literacy is not just a phenomenon in healthcare; it’s a broader issue,” he added. “Providing assistance programs, health savings plans and flexible spending accounts are critical steps in bridging this gap. Providers should be equipped to have these conversations early and clearly to help patients understand their options.”

“Does Amazon Need Saks Global to Conquer Luxury Retail?” was Webster’s hot take on the potential partnership between Amazon, Saks Global and Neiman Marcus. “Saks Global seems to believe, at least in part, that gaining efficiencies in the back of store can lay the foundation for a better customer experience in the store. That complex functions like inventory management, logistics, payments, rewards and distribution can best be accomplished collaboratively rather than building and maintaining those capabilities retailer by retailer and store by store. That’s certainly true. For Saks Global, outsourcing logistics and distribution capabilities to Amazon could make it easier to move products between stores, to deliver products the same or next day — which could, itself, be a game changer. But Amazon didn’t have to take a minority stake in Saks Global to get that deal.”

Finally, let’s end where everything seems to begin and end these days, and that’s artificial intelligence. Frederic Wohlwend, managing partner at Forestay Capital, addressed some definitions in the sector. From “Forestay’s New $220M Fund Targets the ‘Inflection Point’ in AI Startups”: “We’re a tech fund focused on enterprise AI, which is a broad term and a broad sector. But what we mean by that AI component for us is everything around process automation, everything about data, everything about cyber and everything about intelligence.”

“And the enterprise component is important because we’re not into consumer, we’re not into marketplaces,” he added. “We like to invest in AI companies for the benefit of large enterprises.”