In her role as SVP Global Client Success, Cathy is responsible for servicing clients globally through all phases of their interaction with i2c. She leads the client services team to deliver world-class services at every touch point, from program development and implementation to migration and post-launch support.
BR Research: Tell us about the company.
Cathy Corby Iannuzelli: i2c is a global payments processor that is based in California but our operations and technologies are all powered from Lahore. We are a fifteen year old company that is now processing in 220 countries and territories across 24 time zones. We process about $450 million per month across the globe.
In the past fifteen years, we have gone from being just another player in an emerging field to a leader with a vast international presence with well-known, large national and international corporations, banks and governments. More specifically within payments processing, we are focused on pre-paid debit and credit. So we do the authorisation of payment processing and management.
We have built a very strong model to deliver value to our clients. It is built as a SAAS model (Software as a Service) and we can deliver multi-currency, multi-language services more efficiently than a software-based solution. We can configure platforms for different clients so the same platform can serve a hospital in Pakistan and a financial institution in South America. Each client has its own database and scaling up is fairly easy as opposed to spending years and loads of money on incremental development on a software-based solution.
BRR: What is the extent of involvement of the company's team and infrastructure in Pakistan?
CC: All of our engineering, development, operations support, client support and customer support are based in Lahore; so the guts and the brains of the company's operations are all here in this country.
We are a team of about 500 people in Lahore who have built this system over the years and they continue to develop it continually. They are engineers, operators.
We have introduced a new career for technical-skill holders in this country whereby we deploy engineers as product support professionals that form a key layer in our system. Most people expect engineers to be coding, but they are many other roles that utilise the technology aptitude.
We also operate a call center for our cardholders so our clients use it to provide service to their customers. So we are not trying to be a business process outsourcing (BPO) company; we are specialists as a payments company.
BRR: How do you perceive the payments processing market and ecosystem in Pakistan?
CC: I think that innovation in payments. The payments market around the world has developed differently based on regions and countries and this market is right now undergoing the explosion of innovation in this industry that has already happened in some other places. The interesting thing is that the payments market does not have to evolve linearly. Just because some other economies went from cash to checks to point-of-sale to e-commerce to mobile commerce; doesn't mean that Pakistan also has to make all of those stops. You can become a real global innovator that races past many of those stages to deliver what corporations and consumers are demanding.
Being able to skip some of these steps means savings of the investment that corporations and governments have made in those payment mechanisms and that is a key advantage.
It is also pertinent that the regulatory framework in this country is very sound. Globally, many payment processors began as telecom-led businesses however over time the regulators have brought them into the ambit of financial products. As a result, in recent times the regulators have brought reforms and regulations to these industries. On the other hand, Pakistan has started from a bank-led model which many other economies only arrived at after some time.
In my perception, the demand-side in this country is very attractive. In the US, companies spend millions of dollars to push products and services towards customers. In an emerging market such as here, the consumers are ready to start to pull for the products and services that they want. This is what has poised Pakistan for mushroom growth in the mobile payments market.
BRR: How do you view the opportunity for Pakistan in this field?
CC: Based on what has happened in other markets, I believe that this market is ready to make a jump. I would encourage innovators in this market to not think about a linear path; don't go where the puck is, go where it will be. So the banks here have an opportunity to really innovate and become partners in new commerce; which we call embedded commerce. The payment is not an after-thought at the end of buying decision. The payment and the whole financial services cycle enhance the buying decision. An example might be where a bank with corporate customers such as a restaurant can go to that business and say that I can offer a ten percent discount at your outlet on slow Mondays. This would drive the bank's customers to frequent the restaurant and thereby generate customers for it. Nobody needs a coupon; just the fact that people show up, eat and pay makes it work. This means that instead of being at the tail end of the restaurant's business, the bank is driving business for it.
All this is achievable at a low cost however, in other economies; a lot of money has already been invested in legacy systems. In my opinion, Pakistan has a significant opportunity because there is relatively little investment in those legacy systems here so the cost of technology adoption is low while its benefits are significant.