Banking and Fintech Trends with Steve Villegas PPRO

You learn a lot of different quotes and lessons over the years, and I try to practice a lot of the principles I have learned, some pertaining to leadership. One of the things that stands out to me is that people don’t care how much you know, it’s about how much you care. This is important in my role now, that as we share information on payments globally, we express that we do care about what’s happening in the world and continue to provide the right global payment solutions. It’s important to care about our employees, partners and other individuals in the industry that we service as more than just a number, but as a person.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Villegas, VP of Partner Management, PPRO Group.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into this industry?

I started my career in telecommunications and then jumped into consulting. I worked in this space for about ten years and that’s how I transitioned into the payment space. I recently worked for a smaller PSP helping to develop partnerships. Then a little over a year ago, I joined PPRO to head up their U.S. operations to help develop new partnerships as we continue to expand across the North American region.

What is it that fascinates you about the payment industry?

It’s fascinating how we started with the standard credit card for in-store use and then the rise of e-commerce happened. Now, we have so many new innovations and the payments space is continuing to evolve and adapt.

Whether its wallet technologies or various e-commerce components, it’s exciting to learn of all the new things in the payment space taking place around the globe. The industry needs to be fast growing to meet the diverse payment needs of the globe. It is not a commodity that is going anywhere and has continued to draw me into new facets of the industry.

What are a few trends in banking and fintech that you expect to see over the next five years?

There is so much going on in the payments space and I will touch on PPRO for a minute. One trend is how rapidly e-commerce is growing, and now comes a time to look externally at what’s happening around the globe.

From a payment perspective — with mobile adoption and growing global e-commerce, the world will start to feel smaller. Thus, making merchants and payment processors question how they are selling and marketing across the globe. From our perspective at PPRO, this is what we support. Helping to educate these industries to scale globally as there are many nations across the globe whose e-commerce is growing two or three times as fast as the United States.

Another trend we are seeing relates to point of sale. In the U.S. we are very card dominant — we visit stores and swipe our cards at the POS. Yet, there is a convergence of card present and card not present payment options. There is a current rise of mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. This shift to using your mobile phone to pay (instead of slowly pulling your card out of your pocket) is going to drive the payments industry. This has a global effect if we take a look at Alipay and WeChat Pay in China. These payment platforms are huge in China, and are spreading to the United States to help facilitate payments with CHinese tourists and students. These platforms allow quick access to consumers’ bank account on their phones which requires a QR code, but never a card present for payments. I expect this trend and proliferation of these technologies will grow along with the desire for quick and seamless payment options.

Seamless one-touch payments are another trend on the rise. Thanks to Amazon, making one-click guarantees I will have a package on my door in a matter of days. As consumers continue to demand a seamless shopping experience, we will continue to see this one click solution play out — ven in store as evidence by the Amazon Go store model.

What makes the payment technology you use at PPRO unique to the other payment options available in the market?

PPRO connects to the most widely used local schemes in every part of the world. There are many people using payment methods outside of credit cards. For example, 23 percent of e-commerce transactions in the United States are done by e-wallet.

Whether that’s a bank transfer method, an e-wallet or even cash. When a consumer without a credit card wants to purchase through e-commerce, they go the local convenience store and purchase the item in cash through a voucher system. We offer a one-stop, integrated shop for these unique payment methods around the globe. We provide the full value chain, from front end integration with our partners to them providing these payment methods to their merchants along with providing the reconciliation and settlements for all these payments.

All of these diverse payment options have different file formats and integrations, so we really help simplify the whole process. We provide this all in one solution to PSP’s and acquirers, so they can in turn offer it to their merchants. Because of this, we offer a lot of education on global e-commerce to our partners. We have a lot of intelligence and expertise on these topics and look to further educate the industry as well as our partners and their merchants.

Do you come across any hurdles in providing this service to your partners?

All of our partners work at different paces. Some PSP’s are smaller and nimbler. They move at a rapid pace and have very updated technologies. Some of the larger acquirers have older technologies and work across numerous platforms. So, we begin navigating and managing the intricacies and differences of each partner. But there’s value in both types of partner and we work to support and meet all of their needs.

Can you share any interesting stories since you joined PPRO?

I’ve been in the payments space for 15 years and about 14 of those have been mainly focused on credit cards. But when I joined PPRO, this mindset changed. I was familiar with different global payment methods from some e-commerce partners I had in the past but didn’t know the diverse range in these methods from region to region. It’s interesting how little is known about the world of payments outside of credit cards here in the U.S. Some of these e-commerce companies understand the need for these payment schemes, but may not know how to connect with or offer them. There’s a huge need for global e-commerce expansion. This need won’t slow down anytime soon, so we at PPRO needs to continue to educate both merchants and our partners to help aid the consumer world across the globe.

Do you have a favorite life lesson or quote?

You learn a lot of different quotes and lessons over the years, and I try to practice a lot of the principles I have learned, some pertaining to leadership. One of the things that stands out to me is that people don’t care how much you know, it’s about how much you care. This is important in my role now, that as we share information on payments globally, we express that we do care about what’s happening in the world and continue to provide the right global payment solutions. It’s important to care about our employees, partners and other individuals in the industry that we service as more than just a number, but as a person.

What is your one favorite book?

I would have to say the ’21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership’ by John Maxwell. It’s a foundational book that always comes up when I am speaking with other leaders. Other favorite books I constantly go back to are ‘Good to Great’ by James C. Collins and the Bible.

How can our readers get in touch with you?

For more information on the world of global payments, you can check out our website at PPRO.com. If you have any questions, you can reach me at steve.villegas@ppro.com. I’m happy to help share relevant information and sort out any questions you have.