What Trust Payments’ Alison Conway looks for from innovation

There’s no doubt that fintech has endured a turbulent 12 months, reeling from one damaging scandal or crisis to the next. Ultimately, this volatility in the market affects consumer confidence – and in times of ebbing confidence, gaining trust becomes even more important.

At Pay360 – the UK Payment Association’s annual meeting of the minds in London – FinTech Magazine caught up with Alison Conway, Group Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Trust Payments.

Trust Payments works with clients to understand and solve their payment dilemmas, with a global technology platform that connects to over 50 global banks to support multi-acquirer processing; as well as its own merchant acquiring solution in the EU, acquiring.com.

The “hair-raising” period will not slow down the industry

Conway’s role at Trust Payments includes overseeing M&A activities and strategic partnerships. Attending events such as Pay360 is important to catch up with familiar faces and see what new companies are doing in the market. Despite the recent economic turmoil, Conway still believes there is innovation in fintech – and particularly in the payments segment, which has been changing rapidly for several years. At events like these, she always meets startups that she hasn’t met – or even heard of – before.

Admittedly, the fintech space has had a nervous couple of weeks or months. The fallout from the FTX affair rippled throughout the fintech ecosystem; separate verticals such as payments will not have been completely isolated from it. And then the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and the bailout of Credit Suisse will have caused a serious dent in consumer confidence.

“If you look at what’s driving growth, it’s demand. There is a reason why there are changes in the system. Will they happen overnight? No. But the fundamental reasons for the changes are still there. Yes, it has been a combination of bad timing and bad actors. It hasn’t helped. But I don’t think it changes the fundamental reasons for innovation and growth. I think the fundamental reasons – how do we get faster, easier and more secure payments increasingly digitized and how do we ensure that more people are involved in the financial sector and in payments in general – I think all those reasons are still there.

“I would say the last nine months have been pretty rocky overall, but I don’t think that’s going to change overnight, frankly. But I also don’t think it changes the underlying demand for the services and the innovation that drives the industry.

“A number of really strong companies have historically come out of turbulent times … the 2008 financial crisis is an example. These cycles repeat each other, and from what I’ve seen, they tend to get shorter and shorter.”

Still a need in the world for physical cash

But if there’s one thing the current economic circumstances highlight, it’s that cash is still needed. It may be a counter-intuitive statement for someone from a digital payment provider to acknowledge, but nonetheless, it is true.

“I think we’re seeing the splitting of the economy. There are those who are in work and doing well; and those who obviously aren’t. To me, that shows there’s still a very good reason for money. I still think it’s easier managing your finances with cash. I’m not talking about having a shiny app where you can track everything. I’m talking about having £200 and that’s your budget – once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Cashless adoption is at different stages of maturity depending on the country. All of the Scandinavian countries are approaching cashless adoption, while there are some surprisingly large economies that still rely on cash. In fact, out of Merchant Machine’s 2022 ranking of the 10 most cashless nations worldwide, only one – the UK – has a population of over 20 million. The others are relatively small, prosperous countries such as Switzerland, Singapore and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Italy and Portugal are on the list of Europe’s least cashless societies. Globally, this list includes many countries in Africa, Asia and South America – suggesting that the ability to switch from cold, hard cash to digital wallets is a matter of financial inclusion.

Looking for more innovation

At Pay360, Conway is also part of a 10-person judging panel for FinTech Pitch LIVE – a competition to find tools that revolutionize the industry. For fintech entrepreneurs in particular, it can be hugely beneficial to discover what a senior executive at an authoritative payment service provider—the executive responsible for setting the strategy for acquisitions and partnerships, no less—is looking for in innovators and founders.

So, what does Conway hope to see more of? Her first answer might not surprise you too much, given the industry’s recent loose relationship with profitability. “I look for signs of sustainable growth,” says Conway, “I try to get past the buzzwords and the hype cycle and understand what’s really driving your business model.

“I’m looking for [businesses] that are actually going to be profitable and looking for revenue drivers. It’s always been that way, but more so now than it has been in the last 9-12 months for pretty obvious reasons. Does a company actually have a solid idea of ​​where they are going, or are they sticking to the latest trend because they think they can get venture funding if they use the word AI enough times in their pitch?”

Conway says she’s starting to look past the pilot because it’s relatively easy for companies to announce they’re trying out a new technology. It’s good PR for them. It does not mean that the technology is proven.

“I want to see some traction ideally beyond just a pilot,” she adds. “There might be one or two customers that have gone to the next stage, or there might be multiple pilots across different sectors, in which case you get multiple data points to learn how your technology works. We don’t expect them to have a large client list. It’s just not realistic at this early stage. But those are the things we’re looking for.”