As part of our recent partnership with fintech Wipay, we learned about the company's plans to expand the range of digital payments in Spain.
The Fintech ecosystem has enormous potential in the future of payments, both globally and domestically. While it is true that there are more and more spaces where digital payments are implemented in the face of an increasingly digital consumer, there are still some areas that do not yet have digital payment methods.
In response to this, Visa has recently teamed up with Spanish Fintech Wipay to further expand the range of digital payments in Spain. This agreement will enable fast and secure digital payments to be implemented in new environments such as parking lots, vending machines, electric vehicle charging and car washes, areas where cash has been predominant until now.
As part of this collaboration, Visa wanted to find out a little more about Wipay by interviewing its director of payments, Llorenç Rubió.
Tell us about your business. What are the key highlights of Wipay as a company?
Somos una empresa de pagos europea perteneciente al Grupo Petroprix, además de ser la marca comercial de Global Payments Systems. A día de hoy operamos en el espacio europeo, aunque nuestro objetivo es llegar a ser líderes globales y ampliar nuestros servicios en 2023 en los mercados de LATAM y EMEA. Es más, nuestra misión es orquestar un ecosistema de pagos completo para construir y democratizar las soluciones más innovadoras en cualquier mercado del mundo.
In terms of our activity, we offer our customers best-in-class and secure solutions, focusing on offering a new user experience in the management of face-to-face and non-face-to-face payments.
What are your medium- and long-term goals?
Our main objective is to offer our customers the best user experience, in order to satisfy their needs and expectations. For this reason, we have designed a solution that is as simple, secure and fast as possible, offering the possibility of obtaining relevant customer information in order to encourage sales and increase the amount of purchases.
In terms of figures and regarding the acquiring solution in Spain, in 2021 the average discount rate was 0.36% and the volume of sales that merchants paid to banks with cards totaled 195,246 million, according to data from the Bank of Spain. Supported by these data, our main objective is to design the best payment solution based on 4 main pillars: Android terminals, Acquiring, Instant payments and E-wallet integration.
You are part of the Fintech ecosystem in Spain, what challenges do you see in this sector? What measures should be promoted in Spain to encourage the development and growth of Fintech?
The year 2022 will be remembered as one of the most decisive years, in terms of transformation, for the payment industry, both for the adoption of more innovative solutions by consumers, as well as for the advance of cashless transactions. Therefore, our job as Fintech is to create a good experience, providing multiple payment methodologies available for the consumer's choice, taking into consideration their preferences as a customer.
In addition, payment solutions are no longer a commodity, precisely because of the emergence of new Fintechs in the ecosystem, which have made the customer experience more sophisticated with new services. On the other hand, a very important point to take into account is the collaboration between the different Fintechs in the sector. They are very powerful. Our competitor today is our ally tomorrow. We must destroy competitive barriers and orchestrate joint means that bring value to the end user.
How do you promote the digitalization of payments from Wipay?
We do this through partnerships such as those we have with Visa. We understand that it comes at a time when digitization is transforming the way we pay. Wipay, as a new Visa associate member, and relying on the processing capabilities of its network, VisaNet, has been able to launch its European solution, with a particular focus on Android technology to provide an innovative solution for both attended and unattended channels.
In the context of this growing digitization in all sectors, do you think there is still a long way to go? Do you see some environments where this digitization has not yet arrived?
It is true that the data confirm that great strides have been made in terms of digitization in recent years. Thus, Spain is positioned as the leading country in Europe in terms of smartphone penetration, according to a study published by ComScore. In addition, Spain is also the country that has experienced the highest growth in the use of contactless cards on the European continent, according to the technology consulting firm Minsait.
However, there are still some environments where digitalization has not yet fully arrived. This is the case of mobility, where it is necessary to continue implementing solutions that create opportunities for users, small businesses and large retailers. Today, with an Android terminal, the impact on hardware can be minimized by improving the user experience.
https://www.visa.es/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2023/03/21/los-pagos-digitales-1679398415670.html
