Insights from the MAC and MPE conferences

Representatives of the ZignSec Group attended the Merchant Payment Ecosystem (MPE) conference in Berlin and, in parallel, the Merchant Acquirers' Committee's (MAC) Level Up 23 conference in Las Vegas on March 28-30. There was a total of six days of exploring risk and compliance at two events bringing together innovative thinkers in the payments industry to discuss trends and strategies for thriving in the changing regulatory landscape.

Web Shield at MAC Level Up 23 in Las Vegas

The Level Up conference in Las Vegas was excellent, emphasising practical training and thought leadership in the payment industry with a focus on new technologies, anti-fraud systems, and risk management. It is an important conference for Web Shield in particular, as it provides an avenue to get the attention of North American prospects.

One trend we noticed was a renewed emphasis on professional consultancy services by other service providers, adding human expertise to their automated capabilities. This has been a key component of Web Shield’s value proposition since its inception, strengthened by initiatives like the Web Shield Academy. It is encouraging to see the market following suit and a sign that we should work on maintaining our head start.

Transaction laundering is still a pressing issue in the industry. We talked to a lot of prospects that were actively looking for ways to reliably prevent it. We had live presentations ready to demonstrate how that can be done with our InvestiGate and Monitor solutions.

A highlight for visitors of the Web Shield booth was our book on anti-money laundering measures for the payments industry. The book is an in-house production and leverages the expertise of our key underwriters. As such, it set us apart.

Web Shield and ZignSec at MPE in Berlin

Representatives of Web Shield and ZignSec left the three-day-long MPE conference in Berlin full of inspiration, knowledge, and new experiences. With so many vendors attending, the competition for attracting any of the more than 1300 merchants and payment professionals was fierce.  

For ZignSec, the most frequent inquiries from attendees were about Know Your Business (KYB) solutions—specifically checks for politically exposed persons (PEP) and sanctions, as well as identifying ultimate beneficial owners (UBO). Financial services firms are increasingly giving UBO-related controls greater attention. However, few firms have the necessary tools to successfully mitigate the risks associated with unverified UBOs. This makes room for ZignSec's fully automated online identity verification solution with biometric checks and liveness detection, to be used in the merchant onboarding process to verify the identity of UBOs.

ZignSec representatives also talked to providers of point-of-sale (POS) technology and omnichannel solutions as well as (payment service providers (PSPs). These prospects in particular can benefit from the combined offering of the ZignSec Group, instead of using multiple vendors.  

For Web Shield, MPE is a great venue to meet existing clients and prepare new deals. That’s why we sponsored the Merchant acquirer of the year award. Many of the conversations we had revolved around the relationship between merchants and card schemes. These insights help us to better understand the needs of both parties and will affect our future product roadmap.  

All in all

In summary, six well-invested days for the ZignSec Group at two conferences. The experience of both events has made us more confident than ever that our value propositions are competitive. It's been a delight meeting existing clients and attracting new prospects by presenting our offerings and leveraging our expertise.

Additionally, conference season is still in full swing. Currently, Andrejs Fomins, Head of Quality Assurance, is representing Web Shield at eCom 21. Being located in Riga, eCom 21 provides us with the opportunity to connect with our Baltic and CIS customers. We plan to continue this momentum throughout the spring and summer. Our next two conferences are ETA and Money20/20, which we are confident will yield similarly positive results.