Media

In today’s fast-paced payments world, building a processing business to meet the requirements of financial institutions (FIs) old and new, traditional and disruptive, is no mean feat. Maria Nottingham, Managing Director of Compass Plus Great Britain and an Executive Vice President of the Compass Plus Group, has risen to the challenge with the support of her team and mentors, and has been rewarded with the Woman in PayTech award 2021 for her efforts.

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) is often reported as having one of the smallest payments markets in the world in terms of available services. Despite this, it is extremely fast-paced. This is, in part, due to the number of new disruptive players entering the market.

In today’s fast-paced payments world, building a processing business to meet the requirements of financial institutions (FIs) old and new, traditional and disruptive, is no mean feat. Maria Nottingham, Managing Director of Compass Plus Great Britain and an Executive Vice President of the Compass Plus Group, has risen to the challenge with the support of her team and mentors, and has been rewarded with the Woman in PayTech award 2021 for her efforts.

Traditionally the word ‘underserved’ is reserved for the B2C sector of financial services, however, this terminology has become increasingly relevant to the financial institutions themselves, whereby they are being underserved by their technology partners. Underserved FIs often underserve their customers.

A flexible, collaborative and adaptable approach to partnership was behind the success of 2020 bobsguide Best Retail Banking System Implementation award winners Compass Plus and Unibank.

For the first time, we’re in a consumer-driven world. We once did our banking with whoever had the nearest branch and we shopped with whoever had the best price or with the local store. Things have changed. Consumers are now in control, driving demand for slicker, more convenient, more personalised services across retail, commerce and banking. All businesses must now remain agile and quick to adapt to customer demand - or risk their own survival.

It’s strange to think that 20 years ago, payments didn’t really exist as an industry in its own right. Fast-forward to the start of this decade and it’s a very different story – payments, banking, fintech, commerce (and much more) are all part of a thriving, complex, interwoven ecosystem.

Ahead of International Women's Day, our Executive Vice President Maria Nottingham lets us in on a typical day in her busy work life

HSBC’s Brian McKenney, Compass Plus’ Paul Chandler and host, Doug Mackenzie, discuss the future of payments. Together, they diagnose some of the problems banks and payment platforms faced earlier in the pandemic and look at how the industry learnt from these.

2020 really has been the year that no one expected. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, there were other topics that kept us talking, distracting us as much as possible from the global lockdown.