More than money: the economics of payments and its regulation

Speaker

• Professor David Evans (UCL)

About the course

The payments industry is going through a period of significant disruption. Innovation is creating new opportunities, but also risk, for payments companies. At the same time new and proposed regulations are forcing traditional firms to change how they do business and putting up roadblocks to startups. Meanwhile the lines between the payments industry and others is blurring as high technology companies from Apple to Uber are inserting themselves into the mix. What does this mix of innovation and regulation mean for payments companies and the lawyers who represent them?

This course will examine the organisation of the modern payments industry with particular focus on the economics of this industry including the role of multi-sided platforms and the behavioural economics of payments and borrowing; examine key innovations including mobile money, virtual currencies, and the integration of virtual and physical payments; and examine the economic foundations of competition policy and consumer protection for payments.

The course will include presentations from several executives of payments companies including startups.

The course will consist of three segments:

1. The Economics and Organization of the Payments Industry
2. Innovation in Payments and Connected Commerce
3. Competition an Consumer Protection Policy for Payments

The course will draw extensively on innovation in payments, and competition policy cases involving payments, from around the world. It should be of interest to anyone working in the payments industry as well as lawyers, economists, and other advisers to payments entities.

About the teacher

Professor David S. Evans has taught antitrust law and economics at the University College London Faculty of Laws (2004-present) where he is Executive Director of the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics and Visiting Professor; University of Chicago Law School (2006-present) where he is a Lecturer; and Fordham Law School (1985-1995) where he was a Professor.

He has BA, MA, and PhD degrees, all in economics, from the University of Chicago. He has written extensively on industrial organisation including more than 150 articles and 8 books. His 2006 book, Invisible Engines, co-authored with Andrei Hagiu and Richard Schmalensee, was the Winner of the Business, Management & Accounting category in the 2006 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. Many of his publications concern antitrust law and economics.

Professor Evans is one of the world’s leading authorities on the payments industry. He is the co-author with Richard Schmalensee of Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing. He has worked as a business advisor to many of the leading payments companies in the world as well as a number of the significant startups. He is currently serving as an advisor on igniting mobile money schemes in lesser developed countries. As an economic expert he has also worked on competition policy matters involving interchange fees, merchant surcharging, consumer protection, and other payments issues in the many jurisdictions around the world.

Professor Evans is the Chairman of Global Economics Group, where he provides expert help on litigation and regulation matters, and Founder of Market Platform Dynamics, where he provides business and strategic advice. He is also one of the Founders of PYMNTS.com, a leading global media company that focuses on the payments business.

Further information and resources

More Than Money: The Economics of Payments and Its Regulation course brochure

Course overview by David S. Evans

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