The PAYTECH Book

Revolutionizing the Retail Industry Through Integrated Payments Systems

By S. Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich

FinTech Consultant and Author

“FinTech” is already more than a buzzword, liberating today’s consumers from the siloed and limited banking options they previously had available. FinTech has created radically new experiences for consumers’ banking and purchasing routines, turning cumbersome and generic procedures into convenient, real-time, tailored and relevant ones.

FinTech and PayTech

Payments companies are the rising stars of FinTech. Take Klarna, Stripe, Square or Transferwise – it’s not a coincidence that the most successful and globally distributed FinTech companies have a focus on payment technology, or PayTech companies, carving out a whole new experience for consumers.

Long before it was possible to tap on a smart watch to buy a metro ticket, there was a time when even online money transfers were an out-of-this-world kind of experience. It’s now a distant memory, but in the early 1990s we had to complete double-sided forms to authorize a payment, then drop it in at the nearest bank branch. The cards bearing bank account and branch numbers ranked as important as IDs, and invoice payments were the cheapest and safest e-commerce payment option for consumers until credit card acceptance rates improved.

PayPal Paves the Way

In those days, online payments were bureaucratic, slow and expensive. That’s why, taking customer experience seriously for the very first time, PayPal ...