Payments and the Observer Effect

Most of you techie’s out there had a physics class at some point and can recall the Observer Effect in Quantum Physics: the act of observation can change the measured results. Observation in payments has become the second largest driver of margin and has enabled many new specialists…. so I thought I’d outline some broad thoughts and tell a few stories. 

Why is observation important? Payment behavior is truth marked data of what a consumer actually did (offline). While I may search for Ferrari’s, or visit dealership (mobile location) what I actually bought is much more important in predicting behavior and evaluating risk.  Purchase data is the most valuable data for that reason (and issuing banks had a lock on it.. Until about 5 yrs ago). The lock has been broken and payment data has become the “missing link” to unite heterogeneous data sets. 

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

3 thoughts on “Payments and the Observer Effect

Please Login to Comment.