We spoke with Lisa Scott, Chief Marketing Officer at Banked, about the Pay by Bank solution, key trends in the payments industry and much more!
Lisa, what is your professional background?
I started my career in finance and qualified as an accountant with British Airways who had a great graduate programme. I expanded into business planning, strategy and proposition development at Airmiles before moving to LloydsTSB to lead product development for the credit cards business. After building the first retail bank dual card programme (combining AMEX and Mastercard into one account and credit line) I managed all the rewards credit card portfolios in the newly combined Lloyds Banking Group.
From there I moved to PayPal where I led a number of product and business initiatives including large scale repricing in Europe and building the first non-US credit product for the company for the UK. I managed Product Marketing for a number of years and championed product development planning based on customer needs by segment and region to ensure product-market fit in the product development lifecycle
I have been CMO at Banked for a year now, using my market and customer experience to lead the product marketing, marketing, design and sales enablement activities for the company.
What problems does Banked solve?
Banked allows businesses to take secure and instant digital payments at a fraction of the cost of cards, whilst giving a consumer a simple and secure checkout experience that connects them directly to their bank account to make a payment. There is no card number data entry, no financial details are shared and there is no account to create and maintain.
Could you give us more details on what a Pay by Bank solution is?
There are a diverse range of ways a Pay by Bank solution could be delivered.
It could be as a payment button in an online checkout – simply select Pay by Bank, choose your bank to connect to and authorize the payment using biometrics (e.g.TouchID). No manual data entry, no account to manage and highly secure.
It could be a QR code in a printed bill or invoice – rather than going to an online portal and entering card information or going into your internet banking to create a payment with specific account and reference details you scan the QR code on your phone and are directed to a secure site to choose your bank and authorise. All reference information is automatic so there is no issue with mistakes.
It could be a secure SMS message received from a servicing agent whilst you are on the phone to connect to your bank and authorise seamlessly – to avoid the need to read out sensitive financial information over the phone.
How do you ensure the security of your payments network?
We recognise that security is one of the foundation stones of our customers’ trust in our product, so we’ve built our products and platform to optimise for security from the ground up. From continuous red-team penetration testing from the beginning of the business, to robust “least privilege” access controls for everyone at the business, to comprehensive encryption at rest and in transit to many many others.
Our security team has been built to drive continuous improvement in our security and helps set us up to mitigate the security risks we have as a high-value target business.
Let’s talk about customer loyalty. How can businesses enhance their user experience with Pay by Bank offering?
The platform Banked has built gives merchants the power to make decisions that can benefit their consumers. Money that is saved from taking payments with Pay by Bank can be directed into incentivising and rewarding customers to drive engagement and loyalty.
The capability is built into the platform so there are no contracts to create and no integration to build and maintain and the incentives can be managed as campaigns targeted to segments or changed for different events and seasons. There are a range of incentives to appeal to a wide range of customers. For example, a merchant can offer Avios points with a transaction, plant a tree, or make a charity donation that supports their ESG policy.
What prevails in UK payments market – competition or collaboration?
I would say it’s starting to move towards collaboration. The amount of investment/ VC funding in the market has led to a huge uplift in fintech competition in the UK and that’s great as it opens up more choices in products and services. There have been some great steps towards collaboration – you can see more banks partnering with fintechs to create something that maximises the strengths of the bank’s treasury, governance, risk and fraud management capabilities with a fintechs focus on user experience, adeptness at creating API driven products and speed to market. I think there will be a lot more of that happening in the next year or two – which is great for the customer.
Who are your major competitors and partners?
The account to account payment space is crowded and there are a number of competitors out there using the Open Banking capabilities in the market. Our approach is always partner first. We’ve got partnerships with PSP’s, shopping carts, payments platforms and banks – we believe in enabling the simplest way for the customer to get the product. Bank of America is a major partner and an investor and we’re excited to see what that collaboration is going to bring to the market.
Speaking of UK, can you name 3 future trends in payments industry?
I think QR code use will continue to grow and we’ll start to see more adoption for both in-person purchasing and in online commerce similar to those seen in Asia where the QR code has been prevalent for a long time.
I think there will be changes in the BNPL space, partly prompted by regulation and partly prompted by the more widespread use of the product by consumers. User experiences will need to improve for making payments and managing cashflow and payment dates and I think banks will be in a good position to
Given the space I am in, I am backing the increase in account to account payment adoption both in e-commerce and with bill and invoice payments. I can see it replacing slower and less convenient payment methods and with the potential benefits of loyalty it can be a better option for debit card users.
What is the best thing about working with your team?
Everyone is friendly and enthusiastic and the collaboration is great. We deliver better things when we work together and this is great team culture.
If you could change one thing about Banked, what would it be?
Tough one. I do admit that whilst we have a lovely office in Chancery Lane, I miss the old one as it was in the middle of Soho and had a great atmosphere and energy about the place.
Lisa is an accomplished product, marketing and commercial specialist living and working in London.
She is passionate about creating great consumer experiences and putting customers at the heart of an organisations product and engagement strategy. Developing people and teams and helping them reach their potential is a key driver for Lisa and brings great satisfaction to her work.
Never shy of a challenge she started her career as a quantity surveyor in construction across London before moving into travel and qualifying as a management accountant. She has gained a wide range of expertise and success in building engaging products, improving portfolio performance and driving customer engagement in roles across loyalty, banking and the Fintech payments sectors. She is bringing that expertise to Banked where as CMO she is helping shape the next wave of growth of the business.
Besides work Lisa loved travelling and experiencing new cultures and environments and is a keen driver. She can’t wait to share more of these experiences with her husband and two children.
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