Jewel Paymentech: Tech’s Role In Upending The Banking System

Payments are the connective tissue between businesses today. And, as digital avenues find their way into every nook and cranny of a digital consumer and merchant’s journey, the risks involved in managing and processing those transactions between banks, merchants and consumers heighten.

Helping banks manage those risks in the face of this changing landscape is what Singapore-based Jewel Paymentech CEO Sean Lam says gets him and his team fired up every day.

Lam told PYMNTS that helping banks de-risk their payment structures is about helping banks “disrupt themselves, rather than being disrupted by the Alipays and WePays of the world.”

It’s those players, the Alipays and WePays, that are having a profound effect on how banks rethink their stances on technology, and they are using it to better serve customers. Banks can see how technology reshapes the ways their consumers and merchants do business.

Lam said that banks see the smaller shop merchants being picked up by these newer players, which is spurring innovation talks.

One of the larger fears that Lam said banks and merchants alike express is the impact of technologies like artificial intelligence and smart devices on the labor force. While Lam says technologies like AI may claim some jobs, man and machine can peacefully coexist.

“With all these new technologies in place, there will be more business they’ll be able to pick up, and there will be repurposing of jobs to help that new business grow,” Lam said. “Banks and merchants might have the same cost structure, but with technology, there will be new businesses they can explore. It’s just about helping FIs and merchants see those opportunities.”