PAYMENTS Is The Most Exciting Place In Technology

October 10, 2014 – The recent Washington Post blog, “Why the mobile payments space is the most exciting space in tech right now,” stated that correctly that, “some of the smartest innovators in the tech world are on the cusp of breaking the mobile payments space wide open.”

Author Domonic Basulto said that excitement around payments comes from the opportunity to reach the nearly 10 million American households who are unbanked or under-banked. While a significant slice of America is not using banks, nearly 60% of Americans have smartphones, and that number is on the rise according to Pew Research.

ETA’s Strategic Leadership Forum in Palm Beach, Florida proved once again that ETA and its member are the nexus of payments and technology.  Robert Byrne, Partner and Leader of Payments Practice at McKinsey & Company, Anthony Gallippi, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of BitPay, Ben Katz, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CARD.com and Margaret Weichert, Principal of Financial Services Performance Improvement at EY shared insights on how non-traditional payments players will increasingly enter the space to drive disruptive innovation in and around the point-of-sale in their panel discussion, “Next Generation Payments — The New Face Of Who’s Paying Is Changing The Rules For Who’s Playing”.

ETA SLF attendees also heard insights from venture capital and growth gurus Sean Banks, Partner at TTV Capital, Dan Rosen, Founder and General Partner at Commerce VC, and Zach Sadek, Principal at Parthenon Capital Partners on where they’re placing their bets for the next few years.

ETA SLF, the one annual meeting that brings payments executives together to strategically address the future of the industry, confirmed that, indeed, ALL of payments is the most exciting place in technology right now.