In Digital Age, Credit Card Companies Look Beyond Payments

SAN DIEGO — Though new consumer data sources born from technology advances are igniting the payments revolution, they are also igniting the transformation of commerce, and the latter movement is what’s really intriguing to major credit card companies. What this means is that the value of payments, in and of themselves, is diminishing for credit card companies.

“It needs to be much more than digital payments; it must be about digital commerce,” said Courtney Kelso, enterprise growth strategy of American Express Co., during her keynote at this week’s Emerging Payments conference. “Data makes this all possible and is the lynchpin of commerce.”

The vision of commerce? When a consumer walks and checks into the store, his “digital commerce identity” will alert the merchant to how loyal is that customer and tailor services to him based on his history, Kelso explained.

To be a part of that vision, Amex is striving to bring buyers and sellers together in ways that were not possible before, Kelso told attendees. “It’s beyond payments for us,” she said, noting that Amex will offer shopping tools for buyers, for example. “Opportunities exist where we haven’t looked for them before.” 

She pointed out several ways in which Amex is already attacking innovation, including its digital wallet Serve, and by recently launching its new fintech investment fund. For Amex, innovating will mean capturing new customers, which is increasingly key to its business as credit spend has been declining in the United States.

Still, Amex realizes it can’t win the future of commerce by flying solo.

“No one player will change this business by itself,” said Kelso.

And though Amex recognizes NFC as important, she said much still needs to happen before the technology reaches critical mass. Because of that, Kelso said: “Amex is making a lot of different bets across mobile payments.”