Beyond the Transaction: Inside the Minds of Europe’s Payment Trailblazers
As the payments industry prepares to converge at the Payments Leaders’ Summit in Amsterdam this September, we sat down with two standout voices who’ll be sharing the stage: Laura Treude, Director of Group Payment at DOUGLAS, and Michael Salmony, founder of Payments Innovation Consulting. From navigating customer payment preferences to the future of open banking, their discussion offers a rare merchant-meets-consultant perspective on where the payments industry is heading and what needs to change to get there.
Meet The Trailblazers
Laura brings over a decade of experience in the fast-evolving world of retail payments. At DOUGLAS, she oversees everything from fraud prevention to all kind of e-com and in-store payment solutions across 22 markets.
Michael, a payments veteran, has helped shape Europe’s payment ecosystem, from building Worldline to advising central banks, fintech’s, and major industry players on the most cutting-edge payment innovations, from open banking to stablecoins around the world.
In this insightful conversation, they explore the challenges and opportunities merchants face when navigating the complex world of payment innovation, regulation and customer behaviour.
How Merchants Decide Which Payment Methods to Offer
With so many new payment methods on the rise, local schemes, digital wallets, even stablecoins - how does a major merchant like DOUGLAS decide what to offer?
The answer, Laura explained, starts (and ends) with the customer. Their approach is highly analytical: while customer demand drives the front end, DOUGLAS also rigorously evaluates the backend impact - costs, fraud implications, operational risks, and IT investment. Crucially, she noted, it's not just about transaction fees. Integrating a new method can shift the entire payment mix, influence customer support needs, or add complexity to fraud prevention strategies. All these factors feed into a holistic business case before any decision is made.
“It always starts with the customer,” Laura emphasised, “but the financial and operational reality has to back it up.”
Why Do German Consumers Love PayPal (and Cash)?
Michael turned the spotlight to consumer behaviour next, why for instance, do Germans remain so loyal to cash and PayPal, while the French prefer Carte Bancaire?
Laura attributed much of it to brand trust and a deeply rooted sense of caution among German consumers. While the Netherlands or Belgium adapt to new digital payment methods rapidly, Germany has remained conservative, clinging to cash and familiar names like PayPal, which benefited early on from its association with eBay and built strong brand loyalty over time.
Even after the digital acceleration brought by COVID, she pointed out, moments of technical failure in card terminals only seemed to reinforce the German love for cash: “See, we were right all along - cash is king.”
Michael chimed in with a global comparison: Japan experienced a similar awakening during COVID, moving away from its cash-dominated culture (being even more addicted than Germans). Sometimes, he noted, it takes a crisis to break habits.
Can Merchants Really Steer Customer Payment Behaviour?
While customer preference is crucial, can merchants influence it?
DOUGLAS has started experimenting with subtle forms of payment steering. Through A/B testing, they try different checkout designs, placing the preferred (corporate-friendly) methods higher in the list or pre-selecting them for returning customers. Laura stressed that while incentives are tempting, they’re not sustainable. Instead, shaping user experience through thoughtful UX and positioning proves more scalable.
Michael pointed out how powerful such steering can be, recalling how German electronics retailer Conrad helped kick off the open banking wave in Europe by promoting SOFORT at checkout.
How Does Douglas Capture Customer Feedback?
Laura described a robust customer feedback loop at DOUGLAS. Regular Net Promoter (NPS) reviews are part of the teams’ DNA and help track what's working and what’s not. A/B testing, traditionally a UX tool, shall increasingly being applied to payment flows to understand what resonates best with customers.
When things go wrong, the data speaks: an unexpected spike in failed payments or customer complaints can quickly highlight issues in fraud prevention rules or scoring logic.
Why Payments Still Get Undervalued Internally
Switching sides, Laura asked Michael what consultancies like his get called in to solve. His answer: far too many large merchants still run global payments on tiny teams. They’re sitting on mountains of revenue, regulatory challenges, technical developments and risk yet may have just two people managing it all.
Michael’s focus lies beyond traditional payment optimisation, he works with clients on future-facing topics like digital currencies, identity wallets, open finance, and regulatory shifts. Some regions, like the Middle East, are moving at high speed on open banking, building infrastructure and ecosystems with enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Europe is more cautious, and now facing a growing concern with digital sovereignty.
Are EU Merchants Ready for the Future of Payments?
While Laura noted how few merchants seem to be really prepared to oversee their payments appropriately, Michael made a striking observation: there’s no merchant-led payment initiative (or “scheme”) of real scale in Europe. FinTech’s, banks, card organisation and regulators are driving innovation, but merchants often remain reactive, not proactive.
Still, he believes European merchants are reasonably well prepared, certainly more so than many banks, which face a tougher challenge: rising regulation, security demands, tech modernization, and customer expectations consume all development budgets, leaving few resources to innovation.
Laura highlighted one merchant-led effort which is called paymenttools, a smaller initiative still flying under the radar which sparked discussion around the real reason behind this gap: lack of resources, experience, or simply the time to build something new while juggling daily operations.
Catch Them Live in Amsterdam
Both Laura Treude and Michael Salmony will be sharing more insights at the upcoming Payments Leaders’ Summit in Amsterdam this September, during the panel discussion: Turning Open Banking into Real Business Value. Expect a candid, cross-sector look at how this once-hyped initiative can deliver measurable impact and what merchants and banks need to do next!
