The payments industry is undergoing unprecedented change. Briony Richter speaks to Sebastien Slim, Europe and Americas director at HPS, about the business’s strategy and how it aims to stay ahead of the curve
Founded in 1995, HPS aims to deliver innovative and future-thinking solutions that will transform the entire payments value chain.
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As of today, HPS works with over 400 clients in 90 countries. By using HPS’s software, organisations can rapidly improve their infrastructure and product development, making it easier to scale and deliver to the market with maximum efficiency.
HPS currently provides payment solutions to businesses including acquirers, card processors, issuers, retailers and financial organisations. Facilitating innovation in the payments sphere is a constant challenge, and keeping up with regulatory changes and consumer demands can put significant strains on organisations; this is where HPS steps in.
Speaking to EPI, Sebastien Slim discusses his role and what HPS delivers. “I joined HPS about eight years ago, and currently I work across two areas. On one hand I’m head of marketing and innovation, but since July last year I took on another position: I’m now responsible for Europe and the Americas in terms of sales and delivery,” he explains.
“At HPS, we provide software that is pretty unique. We have been developing that for 25 years.”
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By GlobalDataThe software that HPS is continually developing and improving was built solely by the company. Slim notes that not only does this make its offering more personalised to its clients, but it also builds brand trust.
The company’s founders are still massively involved in the development process, and Slim is keen to highlight that the HPS team puts substantial levels of energy and passion into its client relationships.
CHANGE AND EVOLUTION
To keep up with the pace of change, HPS constantly evolves its software and expands its reach to clients all over the globe.
In February 2019, Société Générale selected HPS to transform the bank’s payment-processing activities for 10 African subsidiaries. It will use HPS’s PowerCARD suite in a software-as-a-service model, covering the entire payment value chain and all international and domestic schemes.
This is just one of many examples of banks and financial organisations migrating over to benefit from a single integrated platform that can streamline the overall payment process.
At this year’s PowerCARD Users meeting, spokespeople including Slim spoke about what HPS will be focusing on, and how it will deliver to its clients.
“We put a strong emphasis on customer relationships for today and tomorrow,” Slim highlights.
“It’s important that we achieve that intimacy with our customers to build trust.” He continues: “Two years ago we spoke a lot about the digitisation of banks; that’s with us now, so it’s about taking it to the next level. This year we discussed a lot about the capabilities of APIs; now we have to look at how APIs can power that digitisation. We need to partner and work together across banks and fintechs.”
Regulatory changes have fully kicked off in Europe with PSD2 and GDPR. That trend of change is now spreading around the world, with more countries bringing about their own unique regulations to drive transparency and innovation.
Slim notes that fintechs and banks have very different needs in terms of scalability. Fintechs need a secure and integrated platform from which to expand, while banks often have legacy systems that hold them back.
HPS’s role, therefore, is to deliver more forward-thinking technology that allows banks to prepare for the changes they face. Looking to the future, Slim believes that HPS’s key skill is its ability to listen to clients and understand their needs.
“We are going to continue to evolve and change as demands change,” he concludes. “We will optimise our delivery and offer transparent access to our software. Tokenisation is definitely a priority, but we are also looking at AI and machine learning, and have initiatives on blockchain.”
For over 20 years, HPS has moved with the times and evolved its software to harmonise with the current payments landscape. Working with both partners and clients, HPS’s priority is to continue to enable innovation in payments.
