Interview with Jeremy Boles, Head of Fintech Sales & Partnerships

In advance of Money2020, our Head of Fintech Sales & Partnerships, Jeremy Boles, discussed the key topics for Amsterdam this year. We talk about the key priorities for Fintechs as the payments and embedded finance sector is maturing.

It’s only a few weeks now until Money20/20, what are you looking forward to most about the conference?

I think everyone is looking forward to Money20/20, as always. The conference is a great catalyst for change & connection. With so many of the industry's thought leaders and commercial decision-makers in one place, it is a great way to gather insights into what’s happening across the industry.

This year, the official theme of the conference is “Human X Machine”, but from my perspective, I think it could easily be, the “Back-office is back in front”, as we’re seeing a strong trend toward more back-office operational focus & maturity across the fintech & payments sector. Over the last 12 to 18 months, the industry has scrambled through new valuations, challenging fundraising environments and increased regulatory scrutiny. As a result, many payment businesses are now focusing more on the boring but essential back-office elements of their business, like compliance, financial reporting and reconciliation in order to establish more efficient and stable business models.

This maturing of the industry is, in part, responsible for the increasing demands on automation that I’m seeing every day. This will definitely be part of the conversations at Money20/20 this year, so I’m looking forward to talking about FinOps, automation and reporting & reconciliation in the context of Man V Machine.

How will the maturing of the sector impact the future strategies of fintech and the payments industry in general?

Firstly, this remains a great time to be in the Payments business. Card payments remain core to that growth with Visa and MasterCard expanding their presence in cross-border and B2B transactions, whilst also building significant direct rails for transfers and payments. The growth over the last few years in card payments has been striking. For a product that was supposedly nearing saturation, there are over 2 billion more Visa and MasterCard payment cards in the market than there were 5 years ago; which makes me think about what the next 5 years will look like.

After the spectacular growth of the 2010s & very early twenties, the industry entered a period of consolidation in the last 18 months. This resulted in a number of new tie-ups with industry participants reassessing their strategies and operating environments to ensure that their existing businesses are built on solid foundations and are appropriately positioned for future growth.

One thing I hear repeatedly is the challenge that many providers have faced in maintaining an efficient and effective operating environment after that period of sustained growth. COOs and CFOs are effectively playing catch-up in their payments operations functions and in financial reporting and reconciliations. This is complicated by the need for Fintechs and Payments businesses to build operations that can meet their clients needs across multiple geographies, products and customer groups in an increasingly global world.

How complex is the operating environment for Fintech and Payments companies and how are they addressing the challenge of building a robust operating environment?

The complexity is both a function of the growth over the last five years and the need to support varying customer needs in their card programs. For example, it would not be uncommon for leading providers in embedded finance to manage data coming from two card schemes (typically Visa & Mastercard), from 3 or more processors, across 5-10 currencies, in multiple time zones. All while maintaining multiple treasury accounts and reconciling both internal and external balances and transactions on a daily basis as required by regulators.

However, automating operational and financial processes and reducing manual effort, on top of these data environments is a challenge for industry CTOs and their internal customers. I saw research recently that showed that upwards of 80% of today’s card issuers and programme managers continue to rely on spreadsheets and manual work to perform reconciliations. That is consistent with what I’ve seen from an industry that is now focussed on building robust operational foundations and position itself for the next phase of growth & consolidation.

Given that challenge, what are some of the decisions that Fintechs are making when faced with positioning their business for the next phase of growth?

Scaling a payments business requires the expansion of your operational footprint to include new processors, new customer groups and most likely, the split of your programs across multiple schemes & currencies.

This expansion necessarily increases the complexity of your internal operating environment and the data that drives your business. That’s why almost two thirds of payments companies don’t see any real scaling benefits in their operating costs and, in fact, almost 30% see costs rising faster than volumes as they grow.

The truth is that the experienced personnel required to manage this increasing complexity are in short supply. Whereas some Fintechs have been successful in identifying and recruiting specialists in scheme and payments data sets, scaling such an approach is difficult given its reliance on manual work and individual knowledge. This means that Fintechs that are approaching the scaling opportunity have to decide whether to invest their time in recruiting and training data specialists to manage that increased complexity or find a partner that can drive some standardization.

How can Cambrist support fintech and payments providers in achieving their scaling ambitions?

That is where Cambrist comes in. Our speciality is in managing and standardizing payments data sets, automating otherwise manual tasks and helping our partners position themselves for operational excellence as they scale. One of our most recent client projects involved automating the reconciliation process across both schemes and three processors. This allows instant access to accurate information and saves our client time, effort and reduces human errors.

We see ourselves as trusted partners for BIN Sponsors, Issuer Processors, and Card Program Managers that are looking to expand their business. Our service addresses the data complexity that arises as a card payments business scales. This will ultimately simplify your back-office operations, increasing speed and accuracy. If you’d like to learn more, we’re looking forward to meeting existing partners and future customers in Amsterdam as part of Money20/20.

Contact me or anyone at the team if you’d like to arrange some time to meet.