THE BIG I N T ER VIE W


NO HIDING PLACE FOR TODAY’S CFO


Brian McArthur-Muscroft, Chief Financial Officer at leading global payments provider Paysafe, was named Inspirational Finance


Director of the Year at The FDs’ Excellence Awards for 2017. Here, in an exclusive interview, he tells Director of Finance about the challenges currently facing the payments industry


First of all Brian, can you tell us a little about Paysafe? What are its main business objectives? Paysafe was created when Optimal Payments and Skrill Group combined in 2015, and recently our shareholders voted to accept a $4.6 billion offer from private equity companies Blackstone and CVC Partners. Currently we are a public company listed in London, one of only three with a valuation above $1 billion. Over the years, we’ve grown to


become a leading global provider of payment solutions, with more than 2,600 employees across 12+ locations around the world. Our fundamental purpose is to enable businesses – whether that’s big retail enterprises or small merchants – and consumers to connect and transact with ease. We do this by always improving the products and services we offer, and having our finger on the pulse of new developments and trends within the payments industry. Our capabilities extend from payment processing and digital wallets to online cash solutions, and we aim to help merchants converge


their bricks-and-mortar and online payments functions and deliver seamless consumer payment experiences. We have been around for over 20


years, and last year alone we processed a combined transactional volume of $48 billion. Having operated in the payments sector since 1996, we’ve become adept at anticipating future customer needs in order to stay ahead of the curve. This is at the core of our culture and it has served us well in such a dynamic market sector.


How has the company evolved in recent years? As you can imagine, the online commerce environment has changed significantly from representing just a small fraction of revenue for retailers and merchants in 1996, to becoming the channel of choice for millions of consumers globally. We can all name multiple, vast, online superbrands that we now shop with on a regular basis. New industries have been created in the internet age and whole industries are now based on online-only subscription models. Take


THE PAYSAFE POSSE: Brian McArthur- Muscroſt, second right, with colleagues Max Lachance, Paysafe CEO Joel Leonoff, Jenny Lu, Ben Dalfen, Tim Thurman and Mike Giannoumis


the travel industry, as an example, the average leisure and business traveller is dependent on their smartphone to search and book their travel and deal with disruptions or changes to plans once on their journey. All of this has opened up more doors for fintech players as the expectation from customers is that the payments side of this is secure and frictionless. And there’s no signs of this growth slowing as more and more industries invest in online and mobile technologies. This has presented fintech companies with enormous opportunities as technology has been a great leveller and has allowed us to cross borders and appeal to new sectors and industries. According to the analyst house Forrester, the e-commerce space is expected to be worth $424 billion by 2021. Payments are becoming a differentiator and the investor community is increasingly becoming more interested in the payments space. Businesses can no longer afford to treat payments as a mere commodity and must offer a range of payment types, in addition to the traditional methods, that fit the increasingly discerning consumers they serve. You might say offering a diverse


range of payments is now a competitive advantage. This has been reflected in our revenues and acquisitions. Our revenue has grown from $128 million in 2011 to $1 billion in 2016 against the backdrop of a booming e-commerce market. In July, we announced the acquisition


of Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions (MCPS) for $470 million in an all-cash deal. This is another example of how we are strengthening our offering to become R


6 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE dofonline.co.uk


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