Share on
This article is contributed by Paul Tunstall, Vice President, International at the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG).
About the author
Paul’s career is rooted in commercial growth, stakeholder engagement, and strategic leadership. He currently serves as Vice President, International at the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) — a role focused on expanding the MAG’s global mission to be the voice of the merchant in the payments ecosystem.
Paul leads the international strategy across Europe and Asia-Pacific, developing business plans bringing merchants together to influence the payments landscape. His work spans membership, sponsorship, events, advocacy, and education, ensuring that global merchants not only stay ahead of regulation and innovation — but also help shape them.
Paul’s focus areas include:
- Launching region-specific events and programming driving commercial and operational value
- Growing merchant membership and annual sponsorships across global markets
- Building advisory committees to ensure regional perspectives inform global decisions
- Supporting merchants as they navigate regulatory shifts like PSD3, FedNow, real-time payments, and evolving fraud/risk dynamics
- Acting as a thought leader and spokesperson for merchant priorities in industry conversations
Paul is always keen to connect with industry leaders, merchants, and innovators who are shaping the future of payments.
In today’s digital economy, payments are no longer a backend function; they’re a strategic enabler of growth. The most forward-thinking merchants aren’t just optimising for lower fees or faster settlement. They’re reimagining payments as a competitive differentiator, tightly woven into user journeys, marketing strategies, and global compliance frameworks.
At the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG), we work with over 200 of the world’s leading merchants — spanning industries like retail, airlines, hospitality, digital platforms, fuel, and quick-service restaurants (QSR). Together, they represent over US$5.7 trillion in annual global revenue and serve billions of consumers globally.
While historically U.S.-based, the MAG has expanded its community across Europe and Asia-Pacific, supporting merchants with regionally specific insights, regulatory updates, and peer collaboration in a rapidly evolving payments environment.
What makes the MAG so crucial is that we serve as a collective voice and strategic hub for merchants — helping them stay ahead of regulatory change, benchmark performance, share lessons learned, and influence the payments ecosystem in a way no single merchant can achieve alone. Whether navigating PSD3 in Europe, FedNow in the U.S., or real-time payment adoption in Asia, the MAG enables merchants to collaborate with peers, engage with PSPs, and advocate directly with policymakers to shape a payments future that works for merchants and their customers.
Beyond the checkout: Designing around the customer
Modern payments strategy is increasingly omnichannel — meaning merchants must deliver a consistent, seamless experience across online, mobile, in-store, and in-app environments. But the opportunity goes beyond enabling transactions. The most successful merchants today are using payments as a lever for customer engagement and commercial growth.
In markets like Southeast Asia, real-time payments and mobile wallets are outpacing traditional card use. In Europe, open banking and account-to-account payments are gaining traction. Meanwhile, North American merchants are investing heavily in tokenisation and orchestration to streamline payments across digital and physical channels.
MAG members — spanning sectors like retail, QSR, airlines, and streaming are increasingly focused on how payment preferences and behaviours shift by channel, region, and context. They’re embedding payments deeper into loyalty programs, promotional journeys, and even post-purchase experiences like digital receipts or reactivation flows.
Enablers like smart routing, network tokenisation, and orchestration platforms are helping merchants reduce friction, increase authorisation rates, and unify customer journeys, all while maintaining security and compliance.
Risk, regulation, and resilience
As we look ahead to PSD3 and other evolving regulatory frameworks, merchants must view compliance not as a checkbox, but as a value-add.
Strong authentication, secure data sharing, and consumer rights will all be in sharper focus. Merchants that prepare early with flexible architecture and PSPs who can adapt will have a competitive edge. That might mean investing in token-based strategies, AI-powered fraud tools, or modular infrastructure that can evolve with the rules.
It also means taking a more proactive role in conversations with regulators and PSPs.
Regulatory change is reshaping the payments landscape globally. PSD3 in Europe, for example, is redefining data access, authentication, and fraud prevention. In Asia, rapid adoption of real-time rails is opening up new fraud vectors. In the U.S., the FedNow rollout is beginning to shift expectations for instant settlement.
The MAG works closely with merchants to navigate these challenges — sharing strategies, engaging with policymakers, and offering a platform for cross-industry collaboration. We’ve seen merchants in sectors like travel and hospitality struggle with high false declines due to rigid fraud systems, while QSR brands battle loyalty abuse and refund fraud. Our forums help merchants benchmark risk strategies and influence PSPs and regulators alike.
What’s clear is that compliance, security, and customer experience must be balanced and merchants need flexible partners who understand that nuance across regions.
The power of ecosystem partnerships
To thrive in this evolving landscape, merchants must choose ecosystem partners — including payment service providers — who align with their global ambitions and local realities. That means PSPs, such as Antom, who can offer innovation at scale, flexibility in integration, and transparency in commercial models.
We’re seeing growing demand for providers who support alternative payment methods (APMs/LPMs), regional wallets, real-time settlement, and tokenisation — all while enabling data access, dispute management, and fraud controls tailored to the merchant’s business model.
At the MAG, we actively foster these partnerships. Our regional summits, merchant working groups, and advisory communities bring together merchants and PSPs to co-create better outcomes — not just for today’s requirements, but tomorrow’s opportunities.
Succeeding through collaboration
No merchant operates in a vacuum. The payments ecosystem is interconnected — and navigating it requires strong partnerships.
The most successful merchants we see are the ones who invest time in those relationships. That means not just pushing for better commercial terms, but co-creating roadmaps, sharing insights, and benchmarking performance.
At the MAG, we’ve built a space where merchants can collaborate, learn from each other, and advocate for outcomes that drive collective progress. Whether it’s tackling fraud trends, shaping standards, or preparing for new regulations, we believe that shared knowledge is key to sustainable growth.
The MAG plays a critical role in representing merchant interests on complex payments issues. For example, the MAG regularly collaborates with card networks on proposed rule changes — most recently contributing to the introduction of a new dispute resolution rule specifically tailored to the petroleum industry, addressing long-standing pain points for fuel merchants.
In parallel, the MAG actively engages with regulatory bodies across regions on key policy matters, such as debit interchange fees, open banking frameworks, and the evolution of digital payments. This advocacy ensures that merchant perspectives are heard early and often, helping shape more balanced, commercially viable outcomes that reflect the real-world impact on global businesses.
The path forward
To future-proof payments, merchants need to think beyond transactions. That means:
- Linking payments with marketing and product strategies to improve lifetime value.
- Building resilience through smarter risk and compliance investments — especially with PSD3 and beyond.
- Choosing PSPs and partners who don’t just process but co-innovate.
The future of payments isn’t just faster or cheaper. It’s smarter, more connected, and designed with the customer and merchant in mind.
At the MAG, we’re proud to support merchants around the world in navigating this future — by fostering collaboration, sharing insights, and advocating for a payments ecosystem that drives long-term, sustainable growth.
Learn more about our upcoming conferences:
MAG Payments Conference 25 | 8-11 September 2025 | San Antonio, Texas
MAG Payments Summit - Singapore 25 | 7-9 October 2025 | Singapore
Payments MAGnified 26 | 17-20 February 2026 | San Diego, California
MAG Payments Summit - London 26 | 9-10 June 2026 | London
Antom is shaping the future of payments with MAG
We’re proud to be partnering with MAG as we bring future-ready payments and business solutions to merchants worldwide. Don’t forget to check out our Shaping the Future of Payments conversations hosted by Paul with leading online travel booking platform Agoda and top global developer and gaming publisher NetEase Games.
About the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG)
The Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) is a global organisation dedicated to driving positive change and innovation in the payments industry through merchant collaboration, education, and advocacy. Representing the world’s leading merchants across many industries, including airlines, retail, restaurants, insurance, amusement parks, grocery, and software, the MAG facilitates strategic engagement across North America, Europe, and Asia.
