1. Tell us about your role in Form3?
Ryan: As Customer Success Director my role is to lead a team of highly talented individuals to further our collective mission to make payments accessible to every regulated financial institution globally. As a leader, my sole purpose is to make sure the vision is clear and to empower my team to enable them to be as good as they can possibly be.
2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
Ryan: On a personal level, I have over 25 years of experience in payments working for some of the leading players in the industry, but my mission to democratise access to payments has always been the same. I started my career at Checkpoint (before they became Bottomline), set-up and exited a Direct Debit outsourcing company, spent 7 amazing years at Vocalink before landing at Form3 after a brief stop-over at FIS.
3. How do you think technology is developing the Finance Sector?
Ryan: The 4th Industrial Revolution has begun. We have moved beyond mere automation of business processes to the mass adoption of digitally-enabled technologies across every aspect of our lives. Speed, ubiquity, flexibility, scale, security and innovation are table-stakes if you want to compete in today’s world. This is all driven by advances in technology.
4. How has technology helped in empowering the methods of payments?
Ryan: Challenger banks, innovative non-bank regulated entities and dedicated payment technology specialists like Form3 not only anticipated the 4th industrial revolution, they caused it… The use of cloud-native technology, APIs and micro-services-based solutions has changed the way organisations look at their payment’s infrastructure requirements. This has also been combined with rapid innovation in the way payments are made including an obsessive focus on improving the user experience.
5. Can you explain how delivering real-time payments for banks and other financial institutions optimizes their performance?
Ryan: It always starts with the Customer. we know consumers expect speed, ubiquity, flexibility, scale and security. Real-time payments deliver those minimum requirements.
The true innovators are those that build on that real-time capability to deliver benefits both internally and externally.
For example, let’s take payroll as a use-case. traditionally, payroll is paid by Bacs in the UK via the 3-day cycle. That means you have to finalise your payroll run on Wednesday for payment on Friday. With real-time payments, you can push the completion of your run to much later in the week leading to greater accuracy with less adjustments. It also shortens the lead-time for the gig economy and for the casual labour market.
6. How has your partnership with Ebury benefitted your customers?
Ryan: Our partnership with Ebury takes our mission international! Through the same API that can give access to UK Faster Payments and Bacs, SEPA SCT and SEPA Instant in Europe, we can now support our customers with foreign exchange and payment/collection functionality in multiple countries and currencies.
With simple customer on-boarding, financial institutions can embed this capability into their existing customer channels and thus offer their clients those services that traditionally only global organizations and specialist fintechs could offer.
“At Form3, we believe the future of payments is represented by increased and improved access to efficiently tailored solutions for SMEs and Retail customers no matter where they are located or trade in”.
7. What features of your payment platform differentiates it in the market?
Ryan: Form3 has a loyal following among our rapidly growing community of Customers and Partners. You only get that kind of loyalty if people believe in what you are trying to do. So, it’s not just our award-winning, cloud native API-based technology that sets us apart. It is our belief in making access to payments available to all and making sure we stay on that path in everything we do. We already have an industry-first in enabling access to UK Faster Payments, Bacs, SEPA CT/DD and SEPA Instant on both direct participant and sponsored basis plus we now have the addition of d International Payments. But we’ve only just started.. our mission is going to take us beyond the UK and Europe to enable access in a bunch of other territories and our Customers are coming with us on that journey.
8. What advice would you like to give to the Startups?
Ryan: Make sure people understand your vision and align everything you do to that vision. If you can’t state how what you are saying or doing helps to further your cause, then it’s probably the wrong thing to do. If you focus on features, solutions, price and promotion you commoditise what you are trying to do.
9. Which Startup technology has grabbed your attention?
Ryan: There is some amazing innovation going on at the moment. The guys really grabbing my attention are those with a clear vision that just happens to be supported by great tech or solutions. In that camp I would put Transferwise, Expend, GoCardless, Tully, Divido, Paid, Income Group, Wagestream, Monese, Tide and CountingUp
10. How do you prepare for a Technology-centric world?
Ryan: I think you need to anticipate, understand and get ahead of the curve. That needs expertise, drive and kahunas! I don’t subscribe to the ‘fast follower’ way of thinking. You need to foresee and cause change – the revolution is here and we’re ready!
11. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
Ryan: Form3 has assembled the best collection of payment experts in the industry and we all have a shared vision. With that level of drive, determination and focus combined with deep domain expertise, the working environment here is a dream. We are empowered to think differently and to try things if it means furthering the cause. Not everything works and that’s fine, so long as you did it for the right reasons and fail quickly!
12. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
Ryan: We have come a long way in democratising payments in just three years, but there is still a lot more to do. We build connectivity to enable access to UK and European payment schemes via direct and indirect models to maximise the options for our Customers. In real terms, that means having solutions for everyone, from the largest tier 1 banks right across the spectrum to a brand-new Payment Institution with a killer proposition. Building out the International proposition is underway, and we are already looking at global expansion to allow access to other countries including the USA, Australia and the Far East.
13. Which Book are you reading these days?
Ryan: I follow Simon Sinek religiously. I have just finished The Infinite Mindset… I would recommend it to anyone. Also, if you want to read an amazing true story, read Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich – it’s old now (2003) but I read it in one sitting!
