DMS Electronics hosts industry specific training program on profiting from credit cards, payments

DMS Electronics (DMSE) hosted a training program on profiting from cards and payments, conducted by Richard Hartung – an industry guru with over two decades of experience in payments and consumer financial services, and Managing Director of Transcarta, Singapore.

The training program, held recently, covered a wide range of topics including increasing growth of card activation and usage, strategies to increase revenue and efficiency, and ways in which top companies are using new technologies. The training program attracted a large group of senior executives in retail banking and financial institutions dealing with payments.

Speaking at the training program, Hartung stated: “After looking at key opportunities in issuing and acquiring, we focused on how top payment companies around the globe use new technology and alliances with partners to take advantage of growth opportunities, and how leading trends such as new rewards programs, ecommerce and social media can be best leveraged to drive businesses forward.”

Hartung also discussed the importance of cross border financing and creating ways for global markets to interact with the Sri Lankan market via e-money. The rapidly growing tourism industry with an anticipated 2.5 million arrivals in 2016 can be utilised to help build the national economy. Cards and e-payments enable the various individuals involved in the entire tourism trade to help the national economy and provide better incomes for themselves.

The training program also looked at some of the key strategies and tools utilised in peer markets to better profit from cards. These included discount promotions with vendors, loyalty programs and points etc., to help increase the volume of card users leading to a better and stronger economy. “Increasing the number of times a consumer uses a credit or debit card a year, generates a higher revenue for banks and financial institutions and thus contributes to the country’s economy,” said Hartung.

He added that utilising mobiles for e-payments is a yet another key opportunity and demonstrated the use of the new application  ‘Square’ – a detachable card reader that enables most smart phones to become e-payment terminals thus making card transactions easily accessible to many parts of the global market. Sri Lanka, which has a 90% mobile penetration (approximately 18 million of the population), is ahead of many countries in mobile usage.

The goal of the training program was to assist participating banks and corporate further enhance user experience and customer convenience via new and innovative services and market trends.

With diversified interests ranging from PCs, servers, storage, network and infrastructure solutions, and financial solutions including the supply of payment systems and terminals, DMS Electronics is one of Sri Lanka’s most experienced and innovative software solution providers.

Hartung conducting the training program on Profiting from Cards & Payments

“While our primary role is supplying numerous IT products and services to the Sri Lankan market, we are strong believers that knowledge is equally essential.  The current boom in tourism and development has created a lot of opportunities for the growth of payment systems in Sri Lanka, so we realised that this workshop would be extremely beneficial to our long-time clientele,” said Lal Chandranath, Managing Director of DMS Electronics.

DMSE is a market leader in IT systems integration and provides end-user equipment including EDC POS terminals, transaction security solutions and engineering services for credit and debit card payments in Sri Lanka. The company currently supports over 90% of the card payment transactions and systems across the island.

Hartung has over 20 years of experience in the payments and consumer financial services industry, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. Starting his career in retail banking in California, he later moved to Citibank, Japan and helped start retail banking for the company. In 1993, he joined MasterCard as Head of Operations & Systems for the Asia Pacific, later moving to Keppel TatLee Bank to launch the bank’s credit card program that became profitable in just over a year.

Hartung set up Transcarta (formerly known as Asia Pay) in 2002. The company focuses on assisting cards and payments companies with strategy, product development, market entry, operations enhancement, merchant acquiring and risk management. Hartung also conducts numerous seminars and workshops on credit cards and payment systems around the world, and consults with many global giants.