Can Two Truly Tango in the Payments Industry?

By PYMNTS | June 1, 2010

Name: Scot Yarbrough

Title: Director, Innovation Services

Company: TSYS

What I’m working on now…I’m one of many resources focused on TSYS’ mobile strategy.

My crowning achievement is…my two kids. But from a professional perspective, I take great pride in the success of TSYS. I believe you can help your organization do great things if you don’t care who gets the credit. I’ve tried to work every day with that in mind; along with doing what’s right for our customers.

Industry Association Awards…see above. I’m very proud of the TSYS brand and what it stands for in our industry. For example, continuing to be listed in the top 5 of FORTUNE magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies list in our industry is a great honor.

Education…BA MIS Georgia Southern University

When I’m not working, I like to…hang out with my kids and play golf.

My favorite payment factor is…the next one. It is an exciting time in the payments industry. For many years, there really wasn’t much to talk about from an innovation perspective in our space. Now, as payments and mobile devices continue to merge and intersect, we have companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft (just to name a few) entering the payments industry. They are pushing the envelope and it’s creating enormous opportunities for TSYS. It is inspiring new thought and challenging the status quo which, I believe, will ultimately lead to great new products and services.

I do believe that a number of form factors will ultimately co-exist in the market. Some describe contactless stickers as a “bridge” for example from cards to NFC-enabled mobile phones. I believe that stickers may ultimately find a niche in the market and co-exist along with traditional mag-stripe cards, mobile contactless devices, microSD chips, etc. I read a quote once and I printed it and keep it on my desk: “When airplanes were invented, trains didn’t go away. When TV was invented, radio didn’t go away. Various media work together and reach consumers at different times.”* That’s what I believe will happen as contactless and mobile continue to grow. They will work together with existing payment factors and reach consumers at different times. For TSYS, we are striving to position ourselves to be able to support all of these payment factors; and we want to be ready when our clients walk in and ask for the “next one.”

*Charles Brown, co-chair of the coupon council for the Promotion Marketing Association and vice president of marketing for NCH Marketing Services

I think the next big thing in payments is…more consumer choice and control. Consumers are demanding it. There are really four key components that must come together: choice, control, convenience and simplicity. The mobile channel is such a powerful device in this sense. It enables products and services to easily support these four critical elements of the consumer need and provides unlimited possibilities. As TSYS continues to expand into new payment factors, we are providing consumers choice, control, convenience and simplicity in new products and services like the TSYS Hybrid functionality and TSYS Alerts. In both cases, we set out to truly empower the consumer.

Cash is…not going anywhere.

Checks are…a thing of the past. My kids may never even learn how to write a check. Checks will disappear.

NFC will…continue to transform payments. It will exist in multiple form factors and will provide consumers greater choice and control.

EMV will…needs to be considered by issuers in the U.S., regardless of its acceptance in the U.S., especially in the commercial space. As consumers travel the world, they need payment products that support EMV.

P2P will…be a critical component of electronic payments in the near future. Consumers will demand it as a choice. I am very excited about some of the ideas and concepts we have around P2P at TSYS.

My mentor is/I’ve learned from my mentor…has always been my mom. She is my greatest inspiration and has taught me so much about life. Professionally, I have been exposed to many great leaders, friends and mentors, but Connie Dudley (Executive Vice President, Product and Client Development, TSYS) has been a significant mentor over the last 15 years for me. She has always allowed me a certain level of freedom to pursue what I believe in and has provided me great opportunities. The most significant thing I learned from Connie was how to treat the customer and what it takes to exceed the customer’s expectations every day.

Executive Bio: Scot Yarbrough brings more than 14 years of experience in the financial services industry to his role as director with the Innovation Services division at TSYS. He is responsible for cultivating and delivering corporate-wide strategic initiatives that drive profitable growth, utilizing his experience in enterprise mobile strategies with a focus on architecture design that enables better speed-to-market.

In his past roles with TSYS, Scot has supported conversions in a variety of leadership roles, totaling more than 96 million accounts and $186 billion in receivables. He holds a bachelors degree in management information systems from Georgia Southern University.