PayDirt: An American Banker Podcast with Daniel Wolfe

Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, explains the evolving role blockchain has taken during the coronavirus pandemic. Blockchain, originally developed for use with bitcoin, provides a way to bring trust and order to the chaos of the current crisis, but it's no silver bullet.

Steve Mott, principal of BetterBuyDesign, looks at the full scope of the payments industry and how it can survive the pandemic. The payments industry is difficult to disrupt, according to Mott, but the coronavirus has the best shot of setting new priorities for investors, clients, vendors and consumers.

Patricia Kemp, the co-founder and managing partner of fintech for Oak HC/FT, discusses the unique challenges facing new technology firms, and how the crisis affects investment decisions.

Suneera Madhani, CEO of the digital acquirer Fattmerchant, tells PaymentsSource how the coronavirus pandemic has affected how her employees go to market with new payments technology — and how making the shift to digital helps both the acquirer and its clients. We also discuss the growth of specific payment categories such as virtual gift cards, which are seeing fresh adoption among small businesses that have otherwise closed their doors.

Before coronavirus changed the nature of business, the payments industry was already in a state of upheaval. Major tech companies were engaging in huge M&A deals to better compete against nimble fintechs. Some sectors are now being forced to make big decisions about how they handle payments — be it travel, health care, or other industries that support global commerce. We talk with Melissa Smith, the CEO of WEX, and her colleague Jay Dearborn about the biggest changes in store for transit, health and corporate payments.