The inaugural episode of Payment Expert’s PAC Leaders show drew on a tough and turbulent 2020, reflecting on the lessons that can be learnt and the significant consequences of some of the year’s biggest stories.
A plethora of issues were raised throughout the PAC (Payment & Compliance) Leaders Show, as Pinnacle’s Isabelle Delisle and NEOSURF’s Andrea McGeachin kicked off the series which is set to run through the opening quarter of 2021.
Amongst them was the implications of the Wirecard downfall, which the panel predicted is likely to lead to an increase in red tape and industry regulation throughout the payments sector.
On the situation, McGeachin noted: “This has not just been a year of COVID or rules on that side of things, this has been a year of lack of trust of compliance.
“A couple of things like Wire Card issue causing people to have assumptions and working things in what they thought people having opinions including some of the regulators and I don’t mean gambling regulators alone because they talked about payments, I am talking about financial regulators here as well.
“I cannot tell you how many people I now have to have, to be filling in compliance forms none of which are standard every question is different, yet they are asking the same question.
“I know that the operators have this directly as well and it’s just amazing the bureaucracy that is going into something that people are made to do where it could be a lot easier.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t have these processes at all but the way these processes are being executed is just crazy.”
Delisle added: “It’s going to create its own industry we’re going to end up with companies who turn around and go ‘our sole job is to do all of your compliances.
“That’s what we do for a living so everybody will just outsource their compliance to some company that ticks boxes and then we go right we’re all done we’re good’ and it will lose its value completely.”
