The Executive Interview Series provides readers with insights from movers and shakers in the payments industry. The payments industry is under continuous transformation. This series offers diverse perspectives on everything from strategy to payments technology and the industry’s future.
This interview between TSG’s Morgan Murphy and Rob Cameron, Global Head of Acceptance Solutions at Visa, explores how Visa is adapting its acceptance solutions to evolving consumer and merchant needs. It also delves into leadership in a rapidly changing industry, trends shaping payment acceptance, the impact of AI on payments technology, and Visa’s strategy in emerging markets, partnerships, and digital transformation, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.
Bio: As Global Head of Acceptance Solutions at Visa, Rob Cameron is responsible for steering innovation in payment acceptance in a constantly evolving landscape, in order to make it easy for sellers and their service providers to manage payments, whether they be online, in person or omnichannel. With over 25 years’ experience in payment acceptance and the wider payments ecosystem, Rob has a customer-centric and people-focused approach. Prior to his role at Visa, he was the CEO of Barclaycard Payments and has also held executive roles at Chase Merchant Services, Moneris Solutions, and ACI Worldwide.
Q. Morgan M.
Can you share your journey into the payments industry and what led you to your current role at Visa?
A. Rob C.
I came to Visa from a background that started in 1997 in payment infrastructure software that lead me into leadership roles in payment acceptance and commercial issuing. Prior to joining, my most recent role was CEO of Barclaycard Payments, which included oversight of Barclays’ market-leading acceptance, commercial issuing, B2B payments, and point-of-sale finance businesses. I also held executive roles in North America and Europe at Chase Merchant Services, Moneris Solutions, and ACI Worldwide.
After being a Visa client for almost a decade, I saw first hand how challenging it was for even scaled businesses to keep pace with the changes in the payment ecosystem. I felt like Visa was perfectly positioned to help by offering services to the industry, like what Amazon did with Amazon Web Services and computing. So here I am back in payment infrastructure and it’s terrific.
Q. Morgan M.
How would you describe your leadership style, and how do you ensure your team stays motivated and aligned with Visa’s strategic goals in such a rapidly evolving industry?
A. Rob C.
We operate in a very faced-paced and dynamic environment across more than 100 countries. I have a high-performing team and therefore much of my role is empowering them and ensuring we get access to the resources we need to succeed while staying very focused on our priorities. We have leadership principals at Visa: two that really resonate for me are ‘Obsesses about clients’ and ‘Act like an owner’. If we do that and have the right strategy we can really help the industry.
Q. Morgan M.
How have you seen the acceptance solutions landscape evolve, and what trends do you believe will shape the future of payment acceptance?
A. Rob C.
From a consumer perspective, things have never been easier. Businesses have the technology, the data and the desire to win us over at every turn. If something doesn’t suit us, we walk away from it – because we know a better, easier, more suitable option is likely available.
For merchants – it presents a great challenge. Simplifying the consumer experience has resulted in a more complex and fragmented payments ecosystem for sellers. At Visa, we’ve been working to simplify things through the Visa Acceptance Platform and by providing services that are open and network-agnostic. You don’t have to unseat your entire payments gateway and have the ability to plug component parts into an existing tech stack. By bringing the AWS model over to payments, we can solve truly complex problems.
It’s this open mindset that will shape the future of acceptance.
Q. Morgan M.
How does Visa’s approach to payment acceptance address the evolving needs of both merchants and consumers?
A. Rob C.
It’s all about helping merchants and banks create experiences that are simple, safe and intuitive for consumers. A big part of that is keeping a close eye on evolving consumer behaviors.
We ran a study with PYMNTS.com earlier this year that looked at how consumers shop, and found that there is an emerging segment of shoppers that rely on digital features to shop both online and in-store. We called this group the ‘Click and Mortar’ shoppers.
Visa is offering sellers expansive, simplified services to keep pace with these demands. We want to enable businesses around the globe to offer their customers best-in-class payment options without over-indexing on complexity for themselves.
Q. Morgan M.
How does Visa support small and medium-sized businesses in adapting to the digital payment landscape?
A. Rob C.
Visa, alongside our partners, can help small and medium-sized businesses thrive and grow through our suite of digital solutions that enable them to effectively manage their operations, cash flow, and adapt to customer demands. These solutions are particularly valuable in the current digital-first world, where efficient financial and business management is crucial for success.
Earlier this year we entirely reimagined Authorize.net to bring data to the center, with a fresh user interface (UI) and streamlined day-to-day business operations tools. The new UI benefits both partners and merchants across new dashboards, workspaces and smart search functionalities. At the end of the day, small businesses need to meet the same consumer demands that enterprise ones do.
Q. Morgan M.
What innovations in payment technology do you find most exciting, and how is Visa integrating these advancements into its offerings?
A. Rob C.
Well there is really no escaping the rise of AI and Generative AI, an area I am really passionate about as I think it will revolutionize the way we all do business. There are quite a number of ways we’re already using Gen AI in our products and services – for example: ‘Developer Assistant’ is an AI powered self-serve tool that can help with payment processing questions, integrations, and can even suggest sample code. However, we’re working with AI in countless other ways from customer service to authorization and many things in between. The opportunities really are endless!
Q. Morgan M.
What role do partnerships and collaborations play in Visa’s strategy to expand its payment acceptance network?
A. Rob C.
This topic is close to my heart. Our Visa Acceptance Platform was built on the philosophy that companies need access to each other’s tech, so we built an open infrastructure to allow that type of interaction between tech partners, merchants and financial institutions.
We now have a platform that is used by more than 450 service providers and over 100 independent software vendors bringing ease of use to over 450,000 active merchants each month. Our roster is constantly growing, so there is clearly a market desire for these types of partnerships and collaborations.
Q. Morgan M.
How is Visa addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging markets in terms of payment acceptance?
A. Rob C.
Payment acceptance is all about providing consumer choice. We’re here to enable all types of payments that can provide people with secure, simple payment choices no matter where they are in the globe. And frankly it’s interesting to see how different types of payments tech get adopted in different countries. There’s a lot that we can all learn from each other.
Q. Morgan M.
Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of payment acceptance, and how do you see Visa positioning itself to lead in this space?
A. Rob C.
One topic we’ve thought quite a bit about with regards to the future is how digital natives who after all are our new consumers, are shaping the future of payments. Gen Z’s elevated expectations for payments are impacting the industry in big ways. As digital natives, Gen Z cares about access and ease of use. They don’t distinguish between channels and expect seamless payment experiences on any platform, device or location. There is a huge potential to bring new opportunities to this audience.
Gen Zers prefer to pay and get paid instantly. Technology like digital wallets, P2P and tap to pay will be pivotal in supporting them as they become the next generation of business owners and operators. They’re also the first generation growing up with Generative AI and that as we have mentioned is most definitely a key area to consider.
Technology and payments leaders must keep pace with ecosystem changes to meet Gen Z’s digital expectations. Doing so can help increase revenue, massively unlock loyalty and data opportunities and improve security.