Our Open Banking pulse this week is on Trustly VP of North American Bank Partnerships Eric Foust – and for good reason! Not only is Eric a 20-year veteran in the banking space, he’s also the first VP I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with that has almost a super-hero theme to his roles and responsibilities within the Trustly empire. His chosen staff? A Trident. And the responsibilities represented by the three prongs?
1. Facilitating all of Trustly’s banking relationships concerned with originating depository financial institutions (ODFI).
2. Overseeing all of Trustly’s Open Banking support for financial institutions in the U.S.
3. Collaborating with corporate bank partners to become resellers of the Trustly product suite.
So, to say this podcast is full of invaluable takeaways would be an understatement.
For those of you that may not have a baseline on the Trustly brand, they processed more than $10 billion in 2021, with more than 10 million users here in North America and just closed out a YOY growth revenue increase of 537% in the North American territory alone.
Impressed? I was too! And listening to Eric discuss the Open Banking ecosystem is fascinating. He relates it to a stage of actors that feature the consumer as the main character (of course) and the merchant as the supporting role with other notable performances given by the banks (or keyholders) and the fintechs (technology wizards).
Tune in to hear him share his invaluable perspective on the Open Banking concept from the frontline – including the three pillars of regulation, lessons from across the pond and what the future looks like as it relates to standardization and 24/7/365 banking.
Hearing Kathryn talk about the nuances of this merger is a fascinating glimpse into the difference between the U.S. and EU ecosystems. Both are well-established, but the EU is much more effortlessly driven towards the open banking concept largely because they were early adopters of the bank transfer model. Their ecosystem has been thriving on it for decades. The U.S. ecosystem, on the other hand, still gravitates largely towards card and (though less prevalent now) check payments. Not to mention, the challenges the EU presents with cross-border rules and regulations offer an interesting spin on cross-border commerce.
Tune in to hear how Trustly has had to adapt in order to establish and grow their global footprint, as well as how the benefits of open banking differ from the merchant versus the consumer side, and what the future looks like as we charge forward towards automation and digitization.
