ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—PayPal’s plan to acquire Paydiant not only signals how Apple Pay has jump-started mobile payments, it underscores the growing importance of CUs closely watching this space.
Credit union payments experts shared those opinions with CUToday.info, citing the importance of staying in touch with the membership to determine what they want from the credit union’s payments offerings.
“As it has done on multiple occasions, Apple changed the landscape and jump-started the industry,” said Jeremiah Lotz, VP of digital experience and payments at PSCU. “The market and players, such as Samsung, Google and PayPal, are jockeying for position and mobile payments are starting to finally gain traction after years of stops and starts.”
Lotz said the fast-changing mobile payment landscape is a “perfect catalyst” for delivering relevant and engaging experiences for credit union members.
“Credit unions will need to stay focused and partner with the right providers that meet the security and seamless ease of use that drive confidence and meet members’ expectation for service,” said Lotz. “PSCU remains engaged with the wallet providers and is committed to working with our credit union members to enable payment growth through multiple channels and the many digital wallets.”
The PayPal deal is significant to the Paydiant platform because it now injects 160-million PayPal users onto the platform on top of what Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) and CU Wallet were already bringing, explained Brandon Kuehl, product development manager at The Members Group, Des Moines, Iowa.
“It also provides them with a platform owner who has significant expertise in the payment industry,” said Kuehl. “More wallets allow for greater cardholder choice, increased competition and push for technological advancements. Credit unions now have additional avenues to enroll their cards for digital payment. It is yet to be seen what impact PayPal ownership will have on the current CU Wallet platform or business model.”
Tom Davis, senior vice president, emerging payment technology at CSCU in Tampa, sees the deal broadening PayPal’s potential acceptance to more physical POS merchants. But how much of an impact the pending deal may have, he is not sure.
“I agree that Paydiant made it easy for merchants to use existing terminal technology to work with a Paydiant mobile wallet, but I don’t know how much Paydiant has done for merchants in creating a loyalty program with real-time geolocation offers,” noted Davis.