Axios Event: Fintech eases path for global payments
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Thunes president and chief operating officer Chloé Mayenobe on stage in conversation with Axios' Lucinda Shen. Credit: Cashman Productions on behalf of Axios
LAS VEGAS – As consumers and businesses move away from cash, innovations in digital wallets and cross-border payments are transforming global commerce.
- Axios Pro fintech reporters Lucinda Shen and Ryan Lawler moderated conversations with Thunes president and chief operating officer Chloé Mayenobe and Paze head of operations Catherine Murchie at the event, which was sponsored by J.P. Morgan Payments.
Why it matters: Digital and cross-border payment systems are gaining global traction.
- Mayenobe and Murchie say their companies identified gaps in the market to address concerns hindering consumer uptake: a lack of interoperability and security worries.
What they're saying: "The money flow, when it comes to one country to another, of course like within Europe [it's] very easy. But when we try to reach countries that are further or emerging, it's always complicated," Mayenobe said.
Thunes allows users to send cross-border payments in at least 130 countries and 80 currencies.
- Interoperability is important to ensure users can send payments to users in countries using different financial systems.
- Existing market players were able to facilitate cross-border payments over long distances but interoperability was lacking, Mayenobe said.
Privacy is a big concern for many consumers who are skeptical about the security of online payments.
Paze allows users to buy things online without having to share their credit card number with merchants through a digital wallet supported by several large U.S. banks.
- "The security is the tokenization," Murchie said. "It's very industry standard technology, but privacy in that your card details stay with your financial institution, and so there's an audience out there where this is appealing," she continued.
Sponsored content:
In a View From the Top sponsored segment, J.P. Morgan Payments global co-head Max Neukirchen said new technologies like biometrics and cross-border payments are creating new opportunities for the future of commerce.
- "One thing many clients have realized, if you don't stay at the forefront of these changes, you can quickly lose competitive edge," Neukirchen said.
- "This is why innovation is so important in payments, because be it biometrics, be it real-time payments, be it innovation [in] cross-border payments, even what we do today is fundamentally different from how it was even five years ago."
