Trust Payments (Malta) Ltd, one of the fastest growing payment companies on the island, is part of Trust Payments, an international group with roots in the UK and the US.

The company has had local presence in Malta since 2013, when it began operating under the trading name acquiring.com. The company is licensed and regulated by the MFSA and is Principal Member of both Visa and Mastercard.

Ryan Cachia, Chief Financial Officer, joined the firm in 2017 and currently sits on the Group Executive Team. He reflects: “Trust Payments was established in Malta in 2013 so we are no newcomers to the industry. As a financial institution we have continued to grow and diversify our portfolio year after year to tailor our product and service offering to client needs and market requirements. 2020 has been a record year for the company, doubling our overall processing volumes and achieving a 65 per cent revenue growth year on year across the company, with local growth in Malta being a key component of our success story.”

The company has indeed grown exponentially in Malta, now with more than 120 employees and double the office space compared to last year. Ryan added, “When looking at our overall success, our biggest asset are our employees.” This ethos is one of the main reasons why Trust Payments was recently voted one of the UK’s best companies to work for in a poll.

David Falzon is the local Head of Sales, who has been helping to spearhead the introduction of point of sale card terminals locally. As a payment specialist who has been working in banking and acquiring for the past 22 years, he understands the importance of focusing on relationships. “When I first joined the company, I found an exciting opportunity to introduce something new to the market” explained David. “I have always believed that there is an opportunity to offer a simpler way of doing business, based on solid relationships and giving merchants exactly what they need to grow their businesses.”

From left: David Falzon, local Head of Sales and Ryan Cachia, Chief Financial Officer at Trust Payments.

And the strategy works. More and more local businesses are choosing Trust Payments terminals and, like mushrooms after rain, they are popping up everywhere all over Malta and Gozo. The ease of onboarding, free technical support and settlement offered to any local or European bank account tick many boxes for local business owners. Malta’s strong, close-knit business community means that Trust Payments had to make sure that they got it right from the beginning. David elaborated: “Business owners don’t need to wait weeks to know if their account will be accepted. The set-up process is highly efficient and enables merchants to start accepting card or digital payments and boosting their revenues within a matter of 48 hours in some cases. Our biggest pride is that most of our new merchants come via recommendations.”

For us, it was business as usual from day one. Rather than being distracted by getting logistics in place for home working, we were able to concentrate on what our merchants needed to survive the pandemic

The pandemic has, of course, changed the way consumers pay. As a technology company, Trust Payments already had the capabilities for everyone to work remotely when the pandemic hit, managing to switch all employees to full capacity home working rapidly. As Ryan explains, “For us, it was business as usual from day one. Rather than being distracted by getting logistics in place for home working, we were able to concentrate on what our merchants needed to survive the pandemic.” Such needs included contactless portable terminals, especially useful for shops and restaurants forced to suddenly make home deliveries.

Merchants also required the ability to send a payment link for their customer to make online payments, as well as integrate a new payment option to their website quickly and easily. David added: “During the first few months the demand for these products soared and we worked around the clock to ensure that both our current merchants and new merchants got the help they needed. I think that our focus on merchant’s needs and our ability to deliver quickly helped in putting Trust Payments on the map as the acquirer of choice for local merchants.”

Trust Payments is only just getting started. The company plans to hire another 40 people by end of the year to support its growth and continue adding value added services to its product suite. As well as ‘pandemic-friendly’ payment services, the company has also been working hard to prepare merchants for a flood of tourists. “Merchants are seeing an influx of foreign payments,” explained David. “Tourists want to pay using different methods. Contactless and wearable devices are becoming very common. We partnered with American Express to offer cards acceptance of this prestigious card on our terminals. We just launched Dynamic Currency Conversion, allowing customers to choose to pay in their home currency at the point of sale.”

The world of payments is transforming at incredible speed, and there seems to be a new payment method or trend to keep up with almost every week. Looking more widely in Europe, ‘buy now pay later’, where the customer can pay in installments is a big current trend as are payments via digital wallets where a physical plastic card is not needed. Is this the case in Malta?

Ryan’s opinion is clear: “During the pandemic we experienced a phenomenal increase in digital payments even from merchants that were traditionally only using cash. Digital payments are already the future and cash payments are on the decline. Countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway are leading the way when it comes to popularity of use of digital wallets or mobile payments and Italy is not far behind. Trust Payments is working very hard on new products which will enable merchants both in Malta and globally to ensure that they are prepared for this new reality.”

This article was written by Trust Payments. Visit us at www.trustpayments.com.