Exclusive interview of Nick Ogden - Voice Commerce !

No need to introduce Nick Ogden, Chairman and CEO of Voice Commerce group. I've contacted Nick and he kindly accepted to answer my questions about Voice commerce. The questions are more or less the same as the ones I've asked to Brett Meyers (Currency Fair).
I want to thank Nick for accepting to play this little game with me!
As I did previously, I will split the interview in three parts. Enjoy!

PI license

Bruno Joanides (BJ) : Last November, the FSA granted Voice commerce the authorization to operate as a payment institution. You were among the first ones in UK to get this license. How do you feel about that?
Nick Ogden (NO) : We were very honored. We had known about the PSD legislation for a while but you don't know how things will turn out until they happen. What we did believe was that if the PSD delivered half the promise then it would be transformational.

BJ : Voice Commerce introduces the voice as a secured biometric signature. How did the FSA react to this innovation? What kind of guarantee did they ask?
NO : The FSA were really interested in our business as a PI (payments Institution) and whist they are of course interested in what we are doing, our application I expect was judged solely on the legislative criteria.

BJ : When you got the idea to start this business, when did you realize that a PI license would be needed to start? How long did it take and how much effort was needed before submitting your application to the financial authorities?
NO : The idea to develop mobile transactional capability started in 2001 - the PSD legislation discussions started I believe in later 2004 and it was during the phase up to 2007 that I realised the opportunity that the legislation could create. We spent around 4 months working on our application before submitting it in July 2009.

BJ : Do you think that the FSA was well prepared to analyze your application according to the new regulation (PSD)
NO : Yes they had clearly considered this development in detail and the support we received was first class.

BJ : What were your main difficulties during this process? Did you need external help (legal, IT, Financial accounting, etc?)
NO : I guess completing any regulatory application is a chore and you have to just knuckle down and get it done. We are fortunate at Voice Commerce as most of the team are former colleagues form Worldpay so we had all the knowledge in house, but still had to create the documents!

BJ : Regarding your activities, what was the initial capital asked by the FSA ?
NO : As you may know there are 3 criteria used for the working capital calculation, and the FSA selected the one that they considered most appropriate given that we had been an R+D Group since 2003.

BJ :What were the most important points for the FSA ?
NO : I would have to guess but I assume presenting a full case with all the supporting information so that it was clear that we knew what our business plans and responsibilities were in the initial documentation would have been important.

BJ : Now that the first step is achieved, if you look back what's the thing you've done that you're proudest of?
NO : Probably sticking at it, and believing that if the expectations came to be reality our business would be very well placed to develop.

BJ : If you had to go through this process again, what would you do in different ways?
NO : No same again, and we have just done a full electronic money application, but doubled our in house legal team in the process.

BJ : You are in the business for a long time and have done a lot for the innovation in the payments sector, how the Payment Institutions will leverage the innovation in the payment services industry. What will be the impacts?
NO : Historically innovation into the payments space had to ne sponsored in many cases by a members of the Scheme (MasterCard or Visa) and so whatever your idea or business case you had delays and obstacles in getting to market. That has changed as we are now a Payments Institution and full members of Visa and MasterCard in the EU and can directly take to market end to end innovations when we chose.