Last week industry experts in the payments and commerce sector came out to the
2015 ThinkaThon with their debate hats on. The ThinkaThon was part of the
PYMNTS.com Innovation Project, and our very own Deborah Merkin, co-CEO of GiftCard Partners, was fortunate enough to participate in her third ThinkaThon debate at the Pymnts 2015 Innovation conference. She participated in the “Real-time Payments” arguing that the Fed should allow for market innovation rather than dictating strict standards. “Greater innovation and value creation occurs when you allow the many to weigh in on a problem; when you allow the stakeholders to create solutions to real problems. With the advent of emerging opportunities such as digital payments, the concern is that whatever approach is mandated, it will inevitably be outdated by the time it is implemented.” Thus Deb’s team went on to argue that the private sector should be left to innovate in the area of real time payments versus be forced to adopt a single solution in a 5-year timeframe. The debate brought many hot topics to the forefront and it’s no doubt this industry will continue to change and evolve as technology advances. To learn more about the 2015 ThinkaThon check out the article
here.