Consolidation Could Be Good for Card Payments Innovation
The last few years has seen an extraordinary consolidation amongst the vendors of Card Payments hardware.
The main protagonist has been Verifone who have gobbled up major international players such as Hypercom, Gemalto, Thales and Lipman. For their part, Ingenico has acquired Sagem's interests in Chip & PIN hardware and Moneyline in the same period.
Although Verifone and Ingenico have been the big two in the market for a number of years (since Ingenico grew through a programme of regional acquisitions over a decade ago), this latest activity leaves them in front by a considerable distance.
In the short term, this will clearly reduce customer choice but it is equally true that in the longer term the market has been cleared for new manufacturers to break through and, with it, potentially bring some fresh thinking and innovation to the table.
Several manufacturers based in the Far East have attempted this recently but most, if not all, have found the approvals required to break into many of the European markets a huge barrier to entry and little impact has been made.
However, the streamlining of these approvals, the parallel consolidation in transaction processing and increased cross-border processing offers much bigger returns for less investment for new entrants and it is certain that a new wave of vendors will try to take advantage.
All good news for the buyers of card payment hardware and solutions as it will ensure that the current market leaders focus on adding value through innovation and excellent service in order to maintain their current dominance.
Photo Credit: Codeo