PYMNTS.com asked industry expert and author of Paying with Plastic, David S. Evans to profile industry thought leaders and executives to find out what's next in the world of payments.

In this edition of the PYMNTS.com CEO Series, David sat down with the Global Alliance Director of Monitise, Lisa Stanton. Monitise is a leading provider of mobile payent solutions with an international reach. As the first employee for Monitse America, Lisa is well versed in the company's unwritten rule of thumb: any consumer, any network, any mobile device. What does the future hold for Monitise? Will improvements in NFC and mobile money transfers change the payments landscape? Find out what's next for Monitise and payments industry.

To listen to this interview, click here.

Interview with Lisa Stanton | Global Alliance Director | Monitise

Evans: Hi, this is David Evans. I’m here today with Lisa Stanton, who is a Senior Executive with Monitise. As many of you know, Monitise is one of the leading providers of mobile payment solutions around the world. Today, we’re going to be talking about what’s next in mobile payments. Lisa, how did you get into payments?

Stanton: Oh, thanks, David. I’m really excited to be part of this, so thanks for including us.

Evans: Sure.

Stanton: I actually got involved in payments while I was at Citizens Bank. So Citizens, as you know, is the U.S. division of Royal Bank of Scotland. Spent 17 or so years with Citizens and the final eight or so, I was running the EFT type businesses, so debit, credit, ATM networks, and the like. So really became immersed in the payment side of the business.

Evans: So you did that before you joined Monitise. Is that right?

Stanton: That’s right. Yeah, ironically, sort of out of character, before that I was self employed, running a commercial real estate business and actually joined the bank as part of an effort for them to dispose of all of the foreclosed real estate back in the early 90s, when we were having a similar type of economy, but as that market dried up, they moved me into the payment space where I actually could make them some money as opposed to just spending the money and –

Evans: That’s really interesting.

Stanton: I really enjoyed it. Yes.

Evans: And when did you join Monitise?

Stanton: It’s been about three years now. I was employee number one actually when the U.S. company called Monitise America, which was or is a joint venture between Monitise in the UK and at that time, Metavante was formed. I came on board to establish the business here in the U.S.

Evans: And what does Monitise do and where does it do it?

Stanton: OK, sure. So I mean I think the way we like to be thought of is one of the players who are evolving the mobile payments ecosystem internationally. Our model actually sort of repurposes existing, trusted, dependable payment players, like EFT networks and core processors and bill payment platforms, that kind of thing, such that we can expand that access to their existing customers but via now their personal mobile device. So the monitor is really any consumer, any network, any mobile device, so inclusivity. So moving banking and payments from the traditional sense to sort of a ubiquitous channel access via the consumer’s mobile and in terms of where we’re doing it, we’re actually live in the UK where Monitise originally was founded and that’s about four years live now and then here in the U.S., two plus years and as you may have seen, we’ve announced plans for launch in Canada and India and beyond.

Evans: I want to come back to Monitise in just a couple of minutes, but I want to talk more generally about the mobile payments business. Let’s stick to the U.S. just for now. How do you see the mobile payments business, the ecosystem as you described it, how do you see that evolving in the next three, five, ten years?

Stanton: Well, it’s about consumer adoption, right? We’ve got to get the consumer interested in using their mobile as opposed to their wallet and the piece of plastic or plastics within it, so we think mobile will win when we really, really prove that out. So improving the consumer experience when they’re making a payment or making a purchase, things like convenience, speed, and security, and real time information that ties back to the transaction that they’re conducting and access, you know, in terms of being able to do it any time, anywhere, are things that we need to guarantee in terms of making mobile payments and transactions. From there, I think we can add additional benefits, things like loyalty redemption, for instance, coupons and offers or fraud and fee warnings. I mean it’s very much got to be, at least in our view, driven from the end consumer back. So what can we give the consumer on their mobile that will make them want to choose that as their channel?

Evans: And how tied do you believe the success of mobile payments is in the U.S. to the broad adoption of smart phones and what I think are now being called super mobile phones, like the iPhone and Androids and other phones like that?

Stanton: Well, the growth in that market, which is I think bigger and faster than any of us thought it would be, certainly is a very good indicator for the growth of this and we’re seeing it now in the UK market where we’re more established, where particularly the iPhone users, they’re still a small percentage of the total, but as we know, they are great adopters of new technology and innovation that makes their lives better and so we think it’ll have a huge impact on the growth and popularity of this channel.

Evans: What are the major innovations that you think consumers and merchants are going to see?

Stanton: Well, you know, many are hopeful about the all mighty grail of NFC, right? The contact list proximity type payments and we’re hopeful that’ll become mainstream at some point, but who knows when. But we think there’s a likely number of other steps along that path before we get to mass adoption of NFC. Things like money transfer, both domestically and internationally. I think that’s likely to be a game changer when adding mobile access to that type of transaction. So we’ve been able to do that for years in different ways. I could send you a check or I could give you $20 out of my wallet or I could send money home via Western Union, but if I could do all of that from my mobile device while we’re standing together or having a conversation, then I think that really is a game changer. So I think beyond NFC, there’s lots of opportunity for us to deliver innovative solutions to consumers.

Evans: You have a global vision for Monitise and I’m sure are paying a lot of attention to what’s going on in various parts of the world. Where do you see the fastest pace of innovation or the most exciting things going on when it comes to mobile?

Stanton: Well, I think this week being the event sponsored by the GSM in Barcelona is already solidifying or confirming some things we knew were already happening. So the adoption of mobile access in countries where the payments system is not very developed, the success of players in markets in Africa and beyond that are less developed is certainly proving itself out I think at a faster clip in terms of the number of enrollees and users in those markets. And then in the developed markets that we enjoy here, like the UK and the U.S., as you said, the smarter phones are speeding up adoption and also the understanding that instead of creating new payment rails, if we simply mobilize what’s already out there, and proven and trusted, but put it on your mobile device so that I can use the card I have issued by the bank I’ve already been partnered with for years, then that’s a much easier sell into the general population than having to create a whole new brand or a new payment system. So we think those are sort of major reasons why and evidence that mobile payment adoption is going to happen quickly.

Evans: A lot of people have been very bullish on India and the adoption of mobile payments there, given the lack of infrastructure with existing rails and so forth. Do you share that view that mobile payments is going to be really big there?

Stanton: We do certainly. India is one of our target markets and honestly, if you look at the major players, the very big banks in that market, they’re all doing some sort of mobile delivery today. It’s already fairly established in those markets, not necessarily in a way that will win over the mass number of unbanked consumers in the future, but certainly well on its way and I think the big challenge for any of us looking in that market is the level of regulation involved from RBI and others, but we’ve made some progress with them and gotten some permission to move forward and others may have as well and I think that’s a perfect example of both developed and underdeveloped regions within a country looking for a solution that may be a little bit different, but and always accessed via their wireless devices.

Evans: Let’s focus on Monitise now. Does Monitise have things in the works that could transforms mobile payments and assuming you do, anything you can tell us about?

Stanton: So we sure do. One of the things that Monitise, Inc. has going for it is we have a two-year head start in the UK. So it’s been we as we’ve seen – you know, they started about four years ago, so in the mobile payment space, I sort of think of that as dog years. So we’re fairly mature in this arena and it’s actually proven out to be an incredibly accurate crystal ball, if you will, for what’s about to happen here in the U.S. So we’ve seen the adoption, showing the exact same growth curves in consumer usage trends as we saw in the UK at a similar stage in its evolution. The exciting news, I think, is that we can continue to celebrate record enrollment figures for each month in both markets. So the positive trends for anybody in this space are really expected to continue in that direction, in our view, for the foreseeable future. But in terms of transformational innovative things, we’ve got quite a few things in the works. I guess many of them have yet to be announced, so I would say stay tuned to payments.com for that as we announce them in the coming weeks and months. We did though, as an exception to that sort of brush off, and I didn’t mean it to seem like that, David, but we did announce something –

Evans: We all want you to just give all your secrets away.

Stanton: (laughter) But you might have seen the announcement that Visa made. Yesterday I think it was made public with a partnership with DeviceFidelity, which is an innovative payments company that they are joining up with to introduce microSD payment capabilities and fortunately, Visa has pulled us into that transaction such that we can be the front end provider for advanced user interface with any of the existing smart phones out in the market. So I think that’s pretty ingenious, and from what I’ve seen, something that’s going to get some strong visibility in the markets, hopefully adoption.

Evans: Well, that’s a good segue into the next question. You’re in charge of the relationship with Visa that Monitise has formed. Do you want to tell us maybe a little bit about that relationship and what it means for Monitise and what it means for Visa?

Stanton: Sure, sure. Happy to. So I think that announcement that we made as our contract that signed with Visa was in June of ’09 and obviously a pretty momentous occasion for us, where we were endorsed by the largest payments team in the world and it’s a pretty deep partnership. It includes not just an investment on their end, but a commitment to spend money with us, to build out some of the visions they have for mobile technology and payments as well as a bunch of other partnership opportunities. So they’ve been just a superb company to work with. They’re surprisingly, I guess for the size of the company they are, very focused on innovation and particularly around the mobile channels. So we’re delighted to be partnered with them.

I think one of the things that is most exciting for us is as they are present around the world and our vision is very much for global expansion, there’s a great unity there. So talking a lot about where we go to after we’ve introduced some exciting things here in the U.S. Again, in addition to the DeviceFidelity announcement, some fun things that you’ll see coming around in the coming months.

Evans: Well, it sounds like you have an exciting year coming forward and an exciting decade and we wish you the best, both for the rest of this year and for the upcoming decade. It sounds like it’ll be an exciting time for you and for Monitise. So Lisa, thank you very much for your time today. We really appreciate it as I’m sure the audience will as well. So thanks again.

Stanton: Thank you, David.

END OF RECORDING

Executive Bio: Lisa Stanton is the Global Alliance Director for Monitise’s partnership with VISA and serves as the primary liaison with VISA’s Innovation, Products and Coroporate Affairs Teams. She previously held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Monitise Americas, joining in early 2007 to help set up the joint venture with Metavante, which is now part of FIS.

Prior to joining Monitise Americas, Lisa spent 16 years in various leadership roles with Citizens Financial Group (the US Division of RBS), most recently managing the payments and ATM businesses. She has an extensive knowledge of the US payments networks, affinity programs, and innovative payments advancements, including contactless transactions. Lisa has served on many related Boards, including the MasterCard Debit Advisory Board, the STAR Marketing Advisory Board, and the NYCE Network Oversight Board..

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