Tune in to this episode of the Payments & More podcast with host Nico as he chats with payment professionals about their business journeys and lessons learned. Don’t miss out on the stories and perspectives they share that will shed light on what’s hot in the payment space. 

Today’s guest is Paul Smith, who has 20 years of experience working at Experian Credit Bureau and handling complex data projects. He has lived in Asia for these 20 years and is now working with Allyiz as their data guru! We will have great takeaways from this episode with Paul, including the new trends in identification and what payment and fraud is like in Asia from his first-hand experience.

​

 

​

​

​

 

To begin, Nico asks Paul what it was like joining Experian in the early 2000’s. Paul recalls the huge question at the time was “How can we make data decision-ready?”, meaning how to make it more usable and available to clients. The big thing Paul noticed when he moved to Asia 20 years ago was the lack of maturity in the market compared to Europe. There was, however, a much more agile and innovative approach to problem-solving. 

 

In this era of data and technology, Paul believes it is a race to address issues and retain customer interest. Companies who can’t keep up with such rapid pace will likely fall behind. Paul offers a few examples of companies who have successfully kept up with the pace during his experience working with marketplace providers. The integration of new tools, machine learning and AI technology in conjunction with the pace they were working at was phenomenal. 

 

Next, they discuss the rapid market changes in the last 5 years. Paul sees drastic changes needed within the ecosystem. As consumers demand more from service providers, they need to take a higher level of responsibility in terms of how these services are delivered. Paul is a strong believer that consumers should be carrying their identity verification with them and using them as confirmation for service providers. The responsibility shouldn’t fall only on the shoulders of service providers. 

 

Looking at changes and recent capabilities that have been presented in recent years, Paul predicts that consumers will become increasingly responsible for verifying their own payments. Then, Paul shares his opinion on what is going wrong with fraud prevention, which typically operates one step ahead. Customer recognition is key and will only become more so as time goes on.  

​

Paul also predicts that biometrics will increasingly have an important role to play in the next generation of solutions. We are already seeing its adoption in relatively simple transactions and usage with mobile phones. In Asia, its usage is practically universally accepted. He is a great believer in online offline and references the U.K.’s new post office innovation to support online offline. 

 

Then, Nico takes a break for the Golden Minute in this episode to hear the three types of data Paul would give a merchant if he owned all of the world’s consumer data. He would first give them the historic data around their customers, then biometric data and finally the outcome and performance data. The conversation takes a more personal note as Paul discusses his transition from being a customs officer to a data specialist. Finally, they tell the story of how Experian was created and Paul offers advice for anyone listening who is interested in joining the world of payment. 

 

Please like, share, and subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcast! 

 

Timestamps

0:48 Guest Paul Smith introduced

2:04 Paul welcomed on 

2:50 Paul’s move to Asia

3:50 Praise for Paul 

5:20 Why is it time to be on steroids in this era of data?

6:18 Paul highlights a few companies who have made effective use of time

7:30 Paul’s insight on the rapid market changes in the last 5 years 

11:38 Paul’s prediction for the future of ID vs. transaction verification 

13:10 What is going wrong in fraud prevention?

19:12 Customer recognition

20:10 New types of data 

22:50 Golden minute

25:33 How Paul went from being a customs officer to a data specialist as Experian

31:40 Closing words and Paul’s advice

 

 

About Paul Smith 

Paul is a pragmatic and performance focused product professional who has worked with clients and partners across UK, Asia Pacific, India, Europe, Middle East, and Africa to grow their business. With over 20 years’ proven success, he works collaboratively, in diverse, dynamic and challenging international markets, to launch new cloud services and information solutions. He has a background in credit risk, decisioning, ID verification, fraud prevention and business information aimed at driving customer adoption and supporting clients’ digital transformation agendas.

Paul led product strategy, product development, go to market execution, new market entry and partnership programs for a global multi-national B2B information solutions company based in initially in the UK and latterly in Hong Kong and Singapore and understands what truly drives long term sustainable business growth and development. 

 

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn

 

About Allyiz

Allyiz (pronounced allies) is the “go-to” company for payments experts for businesses who want to source knowledge, time or people. Allyiz distinguishes from consultancies by bringing the expertise and experience of professionals who have successfully run the function on the business side and have done it well many times. We run short projects and deliver actionable results.

 

Connect with Allyiz on LinkedIn  or at www.allyiz.com

 

Email Allyiz or leave us your comment on LinkedIn on what questions you’d like answered, suggestions on people to interview, or any other thoughts you have!