How Every Bank Can Be A Payments Company

Embedding payment processing inside mobile banking apps is a key opportunity

Disclaimer: views expressed here are my own and do not represent any other organisation

In the last post, we looked at how software is disrupting payments.

We started by looking at the history of card acquiring and payment processing. At its core, card acquiring allows a business to accept customer payments. The acquiring bank deposits money from daily sales into a business bank account.

For many decades, card acquirers were part of a bank. They provided businesses with the ability to accept credit and debit transactions at the point of sale. This card-acquiring capability formed part of a business banking relationship.

Over time, a new wave of card acquirers emerged. Banks lost market share to this second wave of card acquirers focused initially on e-commerce payments.

The latest competitors are software providers who embed payment technology within their app. Only a phone is needed, as the phone's built-in NFC technology, known as SoftPOS (Software Point-of-Sale), can take payments dire…