Mastercard’s Panagiotis Polydoros: "The payments market is richer and more competitive than ever"

“There are more ways to pay than ever before-- debit, credit and pre-paid cards, wallets, current accounts, devices and even fashion accessories,” Panagiotis Polydoros, Country Manager, Greece, Cyprus & Malta, Mastercard has suggested.

Addressing the recent Athens Mastercard Innovation Forum 2024, which was also attended by CBN, Polydoros noted the roles of fintechs and banks, going on to comment this meant “The payments market is richer and more competitive than ever.”

Setting the tone of the Forum, Polydoros underlined the importance of innovation for the further development of the payments ecosystem and the banking sector.

He started off with a review of the significant developments in the field of transactions so far, before focusing on the goals for 2025. Among those he noted were the penetration of business-to-business transactions and the further upgrading of the user experience and security in his environment e-commerce.

A point Polydoros also underlined was that some countries had already become cashless societies and that these could be considered a Northern Star for others that were still becoming used to the concept. He noted that while Greece, for example, had made a lot of progress in this direction, with some 40% of payments now cashless, there was still a way before the country became fully cashless. Efforts such as a campaign targeting taxi drivers new to accepting cashless payments will be carried out in November, he noted.

Polydoros also commended the government for the work it was doing in this direction including, along with companies such as Mastercard, making it easier for acquirers to embrace cashless transactions, suggesting this opened the way for, “next year being a year of innovation.”

While also referring to the importance of financial literacy, Polydoros noted that all the stakeholders in the payment ecosystem had a symbiotic relationship, underlining the importance of trust.

In the end, we're all connected, and if one link breaks, the whole system suffers,” he said, emphasizing the importance of careful consideration for every new payment method and participant entering the ecosystem.