Why are payments so difficult?
Are people too stubborn? Does making institutional changes take too much time? Well, those factors all come into play to some degree, but in short … there’s too much going on.
The payments industry has so many different facets to consider: compliance, regulation, technical processing, security, cross-border, risk and fraud, payment types, customer service and user interfaces. And there is no one group or person who can expertly do it all.
But that isn’t stopping anyone from trying.
In fact, we’ve seen so many examples of companies trying to do this without keeping payments experts on staff, and it doesn’t end well for them.
The New Economy is all about disruption.
But how can you disrupt when the companies you need to engage with are part of what needs disrupting? There’s no getting around the fact that the underlying payments infrastructure is built by legacy players–or is there?
There are a few steps that New Economy companies must take to ensure success.
- Go direct. Too many payments startups are trying to solve payments industry problems by simply building an engagement layer on top of the very thing they are trying to disrupt. By introducing this extra layer, they also add complexity, risk and cost–all barriers to scale.
- Get as much payments functionality as you can under one roof. There is a massive spectrum of new companies that know they need a payments platform but don’t know where to start. The big processors have set up an unbearable structure where the process is slow, cumbersome and requires multiple integrations. Others may be more nimble, but are simply sitting atop a legacy provider’s infrastructure. Still more offer fragmented solutions, requiring multiple processor engagements.
- Forget the so-called “modern” processors and choose a next-generation one. Even the most modern processor is a decade old, and most approach two. While some may have freshened up their offerings with newer APIs or bolted-on functionality, they still have the same engine under the hood.
Working with Qolo just makes sense.
Qolo is the quintessential Fintech 2.0 company–directly part of the infrastructure, but changing it in a way that’s disrupting the fabric of the industry. Qolo launched this year, ushering in a new era of payments with offerings that are quicker to market, easier to engage with, and encompassing a wide variety of payment types and account constructs. We’ve done this by building the most advanced payments system ever developed – the first 100% cloud-based issuing processing and account management platform. And we back it all up with a Dream Team of payments professionals.
The Qolo team is made up of experts across multiple disciplines averaging 12+ years of combined experience in the field. Our senior team’s experience draws from the likes of eFunds, FIS, Blackhawk Network, and a host of fintechs, while our staff as a whole has worked on all sides of the payment equation – processors, networks, program managers and service companies. And the team knows how to navigate the maze of issuing banks and payment networks like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. We put this knowledge to use helping our clients craft solutions that give them a competitive edge.
FinTech is undergoing a sea change right now, and companies don’t have the luxury of taking a wrong turn. The stakes are high, the path difficult, and the breadth of options immense.
Let Qolo help.
