Derik Richards, VP of Product Management, recently received the massive honor of being added to the Electronic Transactions Association’s Forty Under 40 list. According to ETA, “this prestigious group was selected based on their impact on the industry and professional character.”
As VP, Product Management at Beyond, Richards leverages his comprehensive industry experience to understand and translate the needs of business owners and entrepreneurs into business solutions that provide enduring value. He is instrumental in advancing Beyond’s payment product roadmap and keeping the company competitive and dynamic in the FinTech marketplace.
Richards reflects on this award and shares insights into the future of the industry:
Reflecting on the honor of this award and the importance of the Electronic Transactions Association in the payments industry, I was reminded of an event from about a decade ago: Bob Carr – current CEO and founder of Beyond and then-CEO of Heartland – had given a major speech at ETA’s 2013 Strategic Leadership Forum. In his talk, and in the open letter that followed, Bob called on many acquirers in the industry to change its deceptive practices. While it’s humbling to be called a “game-changer at the intersection of payments and technology,” alongside my peers in ETA’s 2022 Forty Under 40 class, it got me thinking: how much has “the game” really changed since Bob’s impassioned plea to industry leaders in 2013? Interchange is still knowingly misrepresented by major players. A slew of new “junk fees” have raised from EMV and other advancements in payments technology, providing a convenient excuse to pad out merchant processing margins.Â
Furthermore, the consolidation of the major processors has done little to increase corporate oversight or agent-level compliance. Merchants are still regularly deceived by false claims of “free POS” and other small print used to extort large fees. These observations are not meant to be cynical, but introspective. For all our technological payments advancements of the last decade – EMV (in the US), mCommerce “in-app,” 3DS2.0, and CPoC/MPoC – some organizations still feel the need to deceive in order to get a signature.
As we reflect on Beyond’s fifth birthday, I count myself lucky to be part of this team who continues that mission of merchant advocacy and promulgating merchant promises: led by one of the original game-changers himself! At Beyond, I’m surrounded by lots of “game-changers.” It’s exciting to think that while the industry might not be changing at light speed, at Beyond, we’re working hard to lead with transparency and transform the industry along the way.
