WorldFirst’s Mike Ward: ‘There are alternatives to the incumbents’

WoldFirst's Mike Ward

This week’s guest on the podcast is Mike Ward, the chief revenue officer of WorldFirst, which is a strong competitor in the international payment and money transfer industry. We discuss why historically it’s been so hard, expensive, and frustrating to move money around the world and how new financial technology firms like WorldFirst have improved the experience.

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Below are highlights, edited for clarity, from the episode.

Why people feel it’s so hard move money internationally
“There are two reasons why people still feel like it’s hard to move money around. The first is that they’re probably still using their banks. We believe, in most markets around the world, banks own 85 to 95 percent of the market share in money transfer. The banks have been trying to incorporate technology and make transactions easier. But with an incumbent, you still have to go into the branch and talk to a teller. The teller is a generalist and not an FX expert. You have to fill out a large form and pay high fees.

The second reason is that most people and businesses don’t realize there are alternatives. Financial technology companies have disrupted and changed the transaction in terms of speed, price, and complexity.”

Financial technology begins to disrupt banking money transfers
“The original approach to competing with banks in money transfer probably began 25 to 30 years ago. We’re going to compete against the banks with pricing and service. Travelex would be a good example. To them, service was picking up a phone. Have a matter expert, not a generalist, behind the counter. They’d have better pricing because Travelex would go out and make a market and trade with the big banks. Higher volumes resulted in better pricing Travelex could pass on to their customers.

Then technology came and said let’s make technology core. Let’s not have feet-to-the-street sales people running around to land one customer at a time. Let’s not have it phone-based. We want our technology to solve the issues, answer questions, and conduct the transaction. That’s really what customers want. They don’t want to talk to someone to manage the transaction. The next wave of disruption to banking over the past 10 to 15 years created an interesting dynamic as we’re seeing a lot more collaboration between fintech and banks.”

Growth in the industry
“Consumers are 20 percent of our business. Those needs come and go and we need to continue going after the next client. It’s a good business but there’s a lot of competition out there, like Transferwise. Corporate customers and e-commerce is very big for us. In the U.S., a lot of people still deal with the banks. Many owner/operators of businesses don’t understand currency exposure of working internationally. If you look at e-commerce, growth is being driven by e-commerce marketplaces you’ve never even heard of.”

The 2016 Tradestreaming Awards winners: Best payments apps and technology

Payments is arguably the most exciting — and mature — part of fintech. There’s a lot of activity by both incumbent and startup payment technology providers.

The Tradestreaming Awards recognize the talent, energy, and vision that are required to create great digital financial products. The following are our inaugural winners in the payments category.

Best Consumer Payments Platform

Awarding the firm with a great consumer payments product, achieving traction and engagement and growing its user base.

venmo wins Tradestreaming award

WINNER: Venmo

People just enjoy using Venmo. PayPal’s crown jewel, the P2P payment app has recently branched out commercially with merchant integrations. The app is being hotly pursued by many of the largest banks who would love to tap into the same audience that is attracted to the app’s habit-forming UX.

Best B2B Payments Platform

Awarding the top payments platform used by businesses to transact with customers or move money between other businesses.

viewpost wins Tradestreaming award

WINNER: Viewpost

Viewpost was cited for its holistic approach to eliminating billing and payment friction for all businesses, regardless of size or where they bank. They were also commended for providing visibility of data and access to on-demand dynamic discounting for both buyers and suppliers within a single, secure network.

Best New Payments Player

Awarding the best new payment platform with a seamless user experience and advanced tools.

worldfirst wins Tradestreaming award

WINNER: World First

International money transfer is still so surprisingly hard. World First has been helping move money globally since 2004 and services businesses, individuals, and online sellers. Users have cited the ease of use of the company’s website and mobile app, as well as the customer service associated with the functionality. WorldFirst has a 98% service rating from Feefo, a feedback site from genuine customers.

Best Employee Payments Platform

Awarding the top expense solutions platform with advanced reporting and management tools.

PEX wins Tradestreaming award

WINNER: PEX

PEX has an elegant solution for employee reimbursements and expensing. Instead of turning to managers for help with payments, PEX gives individuals prepaid expense cards. Enrolling takes only five minutes while PEX provides tools and analytics to the enterprise, saving money and time for busy businesses.

 

Come join these award winners at our first Tradestreaming Money Conference as we explore the impact technology is having on big finance.

 

The 2016 Tradestreaming Awards winners: Online Banking

Online banking offerings are enjoying somewhat of a renaissance as incumbent financial players work hard to provide the functionality and experiences their customers expect.

The Tradestreaming Awards recognize the talent, energy, and vision that are required to create great digital financial products. The following are our inaugural winners in the online banking category.

Best Online Consumer Bank

Awarding the top online consumer bank or bank-like technology that touches customers, provides a rich and innovative user experience and has found a way to scale. Pure play digital banks and online arms of incumbent banks are both candidates.

chase

WINNER: Chase Mobile Banking

JPMorgan Chase has done a great job of creating one of the best online banking apps by enlisting the help of top designers and technologists. The user-friendly Chase app gives clients of the bank access to bill pay, money transfer, account management, and check deposit.

Best Online Banking Tools

Awarding the best tools that complement online banking experiences, including personal finance managers, savings apps, and similar technologies.

rbs

WINNER: RBS DigiDocs

RBS DigiDocs is the UK’s first omnichannel document solution. Customers of the bank don’t need to enter a branch to sign account docs. Instead, they can use DigiDocs to sign and return important paperwork. Internally, DigiDocs offers RBS a streamlined way to process their customers’ docs. 92% of RBS customers polled said they were “statisfied” or “very satisfied” with the solution.

Best New Entrant Into Online Banking

Awarding the most transformative and creative new offering in the online banking arena.

digit

WINNER: Digit

Digit is a fintech app that proactively monitors spending to find opportunities to squirrel money away to a savings account. After connecting to a user’s bank account, Digit saves a little bit of money every few days. Through an automated chat interface, users can transfer money out of their Digit accounts for spending on big ticket items.
Come join these award winners at our first Tradestreaming Money Conference as we explore the impact technology is having on big finance.