In this interview, Payments Consulting Network's Marketing Director, Mariel Laxamana, speaks with Ecommpay's Chief Marketing Officer, Miranda McLean, about the evolving dynamics of the global payments landscape and the role marketing plays in shaping it. Drawing on over two decades of experience across financial services and fintech, the conversation explores how complex infrastructure can be translated into clear, compelling value for merchants and partners.  

Miranda reflects on building brands from the ground up, the importance of trust and accessibility in payments, and how sustainability is becoming embedded in commercial strategy. With a focus on practical insights and real-world application, the discussion offers a grounded perspective on what differentiates successful payments businesses today. It also provides a forward-looking view on how the industry is adapting to changing expectations across regulation, technology, and customer experience. 

Read the full interview below. 

Mariel Laxamana: You have spent many years working across financial services and fintech. Can you tell us about your career journey and what first drew you to the payments industry? 

Miranda McLean: My career in financial services spans over two decades and payments was not where I started. Earlier in my career I built marketing strategies for names like Thomson Financial, Standard & Poor's, Reuters, and Equifax. These were large, complex businesses operating at the intersection of data, compliance, and financial services and each role gave me the opportunity to develop my skills, translating sophisticated, often invisible infrastructure into something that clients could understand and trust. Those skills proved invaluable as I moved into the world of payments. 

In 2015 I joined Banking Circle, then called Saxo Payments, as part of the founding team. There was no brand, no playbook, no legacy to lean on. We built the identity and go-to-market strategy entirely from scratch and took it to a multi-million-dollar business in under three years. That experience was genuinely formative. It taught me that clarity of purpose is everything and that payments, done well, are one of the most consequential forms of financial infrastructure there is. When payments work, commerce flows. 

I joined Ecommpay as Chief Marketing Officer in early 2024, with a clear remit to build the vision, mission, and brand values. At the heart of that mission was the firm believe that payments should promote financial freedom and accessibility for all. That is not a tagline; it is a design principle. And for a marketer, there is no better brief than a company that genuinely believes its product can make the world more inclusive. 

ML: Could you give us an overview of Ecommpay and the role it plays in the global payments ecosystem? 

MM: Ecommpay is a truly inclusive global payments platform, founded in 2012 on a vision to revolutionise the digital payment landscape for e-commerce. We offer global and local acquiring, over 100 payment methods, and comprehensive payment processing, all accessible through a single, seamless API. 

Critically, the products and services are only part of the Ecommpay story. We are so much more than just a Payment Service Provider. We are business partners committed to ensuring our clients' payments flow smoothly and optimising every transaction for maximum value.  

What I think genuinely differentiates us is where we sit in the ecosystem. We are not simply processing transactions; we are helping mid-sized and enterprise merchants access global financial systems on their own terms. That means giving them the infrastructure, the data, and the partner relationships to compete in markets they might otherwise struggle to reach. And increasingly, it means helping them meet the expectations of their own customers: for accessibility, for sustainability features at checkout, for a payments experience that does not exclude anyone. We occupy a critical space between merchants and their customers. 

ML: As Chief Marketing Officer at Ecommpay, what are your main priorities when it comes to strengthening the company's brand and positioning in a competitive global payments market? 

MM: My first priority when I joined was to ensure that we had a clear story for the brand. And it was not just about a cosmetic marketing campaign; I wanted to ensure that our brand story is authentic and believable and would be demonstrated across all aspects of the business.  

Ecommpay's central focus is on creating accessible, growth-driven payment solutions.  

Launching the Ecommpay rebrand and the Ecommpay for Good programme in 2024 was not just a new logo. It was a strategic commitment to accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability that runs through every touchpoint of the business.  

My second priority is trust. In payments, trust is the foundation of security, settlement, and uptime. It should also encompass how a company behaves, from how it handles data to how it treats its people. I want Ecommpay's brand to be synonymous with being a safe pair of hands across all aspects of our interaction with our customers and the wider payments ecosystem. 

Third, and this is something I'm particularly passionate about, is making sustainability and inclusion a genuine commercial differentiator, not just a footnote. We are seeing enterprise merchants include ESG criteria in procurement decisions. If you cannot answer those questions credibly, you are out before pricing is even discussed. The marketing challenge is to make sure our credentials are visible, evidenced, and woven into every conversation we have with the market. 

ML: Merchant expectations around payments continue to evolve rapidly. How does Ecommpay ensure its marketing strategy stays aligned with the needs and priorities of modern digital businesses? 

MM: The most important thing we do is listen through industry forums, RFP processes, and events like Pay360, which tell us more about shifting priorities than any dashboard does. 

What I am hearing right now is that merchant expectations have expanded significantly. Merchants want a payments partner who can help them grow into new markets, meet their own regulatory obligations, demonstrate environmental credentials, and provide accessibility that keeps them compliant with frameworks like the European Accessibility Act. These are not nice-to-haves; they are becoming must-haves. 

Our marketing strategy reflects the full picture of what Ecommpay delivers. We talk about our technology stack, our data governance, our accessibility standards, and our sustainability initiatives in the same breath as our product capabilities. The 'Ecommpay for Good' programme is not a separate CSR story; it is part of our merchant proposition. And the focus on accessibility extends beyond our website and payment platform. Our goal is to empower our clients to give their own customers accessible, inclusive payment experiences.  

For example, our Guide to Digital Accessibility empowers merchants to create inclusive online presences.  

ML: Fintech marketing often involves translating complex technology into clear business value. How do you approach telling Ecommpay's story in a way that resonates with merchants and partners? 

MM: This is genuinely one of the most interesting challenges in B2B marketing, and payments is a particularly demanding context because the infrastructure is largely invisible to the end user. Nobody thinks about the payment provider when a checkout works seamlessly; they only notice when it does not. So, we have to tell a story about how we can help merchants achieve success both for their own business and for their customers. 

My approach starts with the commercial consequence. Rather than explaining how our payment platform works, I want to answer the question that every merchant actually cares about: what does this mean for my approval rates, my conversion, my risk exposure, my regulatory standing? When I frame FCA authorisation and PCI DSS compliance not as badges but as evidence of a governance model that directly protects the merchant's business, it stops being a compliance narrative and becomes a risk mitigation conversation that procurement and legal audiences respond to. 

The same principle applies to our ESG story. Our partnership with ekko, which lets merchants offer carbon compensation at checkout, is most powerfully communicated not as a sustainability initiative but as a product feature that enhances conversion, builds customer loyalty, and gives the merchant a sustainability story they can evidence to their own investors and supply chain partners. That is a very different conversation from a CSR report. 

Ultimately, the best fintech marketing is honest marketing. Only 5% of payment businesses currently see ESG priorities as crucial, something I view as a missed opportunity. With strong evidence that inclusivity and good governance can drive revenue, I want Ecommpay's story to be one that demonstrates what we stand for. If we can make that case credibly and consistently, the brand takes care of itself. 

ML: Thought leadership has become an increasingly important part of brand building in the payments sector. How does Ecommpay approach industry engagement and thought leadership as part of its marketing strategy? 

MM: Thought leadership in payments has to earn its place. There is no shortage of opinion in this industry; every payments company has a blog, a LinkedIn presence, and a speaker at every conference. What cuts through is expertise that is genuinely useful, clearly evidenced, and consistently expressed. That is the standard I hold us to. 

I sit on the Payments Association Editorial Board and lead on Project ESG, which encourages FinTechs to adopt progressive, sustainable strategies for how they impact the environment, society, and governance. That kind of structural engagement, not just submitting articles but actively shaping the conversation, is how we build genuine authority rather than just visibility. 

Ecommpay's Chief Compliance Officer and UK Chair, Willem Wellinghoff, has joined the Advisory Board of the Payments Association, bringing a unique legal and compliance perspective on payments and lending. When your most senior people are actively contributing to the governance of the industry, not just participating in it, that tells the market something meaningful about how seriously you take your obligations to the ecosystem. 

Our wider communications strategy combines a regular cadence of press releases on products and business momentum with an ongoing thought leadership programme that showcases Ecommpay's industry knowledge including market research projects that allow us to shape the agenda across topics from open banking to emerging payment methods and fraud.  

I apply a simple rule. Would a merchant or a partner learn something from a report, blog, or white paper we publish? And would it help them make a better decision? If the honest answer is no, we do not publish it. Thought leadership that exists primarily to generate impressions is not thought leadership; it is noise. 

ML: Sustainability and responsible business practices are becoming more visible across the payments ecosystem. How are these themes influencing conversations with merchants and partners today? 

MM: We see from our own RFP processes that ESG is now a pre-requisite of a business partnership. If you are a PSP and you cannot answer the sustainability section of an RFP credibly, you are out before pricing is even discussed. I saw this pattern first-hand at Banking Circle with enterprise clients, and I'm seeing it accelerate at Ecommpay now.  

Eighteen months ago, we were being asked to provide a CSR statement. Today we are confirming Scope 2 emissions, evidencing our supplier code of conduct, and demonstrating the depth of our ESG credentials. 

What is changed is the nature of the ask. Sustainability is becoming a qualifying criterion rather than a differentiator. For Ecommpay, that means we talk about sustainability in the same breath as product capability. Our ekko partnership, which enables carbon compensation at checkout, is a product conversation. Our work with the Digital Accessibility Centre, the Disability Confident Scheme, and the RNIB through Ecommpay for Good is part of our merchant proposition, not a separate CSR report. Promoting financial freedom and accessibility for all is core to what we do and that means our approach to responsible business practices begins with how we engage with every customer from the first point of contact.  

ML: You are speaking on a panel at Pay360 titled "The Commercial Advantage of Competitive Sustainability." Why do you think sustainability is increasingly becoming a strategic differentiator for companies in the payments industry? 

MM: McKinsey's research links ESG to cash flow in five ways: top-line growth, cost reduction, regulatory freedom, productivity uplift, and better capital allocation. If your sustainability programme is not connected to at least three of those, it is a PR exercise, not a strategy.  

Payments businesses occupy a specific and important position in this picture. As a PSP, you sit in your merchants' supply chains. Their investors and auditors are examining Scope 3 emissions, supply chain governance, and data handling practices. If you can demonstrate strong ESG credentials through carbon offsetting tools, accessibility standards, and robust governance frameworks you reduce your merchants' reporting burden and risk profile. That makes you commercially more attractive, not just ethically preferable. 

The regulatory dimension is also hardening rather than softening, despite some of the noise from the US. In Europe, CSRD applies to approximately 50,000 EU companies. The FCA's Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and Consumer Duty framework mean sustainability has genuine regulatory teeth in the UK. The European Accessibility Act comes into force this year, mandating accessible products and services. These are not voluntary frameworks; they are legal obligations. And the payments firms that have embedded sustainability into their strategy proactively will face those obligations with far less disruption than those scrambling to retrofit compliance. 

The competitive advantage, then, is simple: the firms that treated sustainability as strategic several years ago are now benefiting from lower regulatory risk, stronger procurement relationships, better capital access, and more resilient talent pipelines. That is a compounding advantage, and it is widening. 

ML: Without giving too much away, what aspects of the topic do you think are particularly interesting for the Pay360 audience? 

MM: The Pay360 audience is senior and has heard the sustainability conversation framed as ethics and obligation. What I think will land differently at this panel is hearing it framed as a commercial operating model with concrete, evidence-based examples from within the payments sector itself. 

I think a few topics will generate genuine debate.  

First, the question of whether the repositioning of ESG, particularly the pulling back of some US firms from explicit ESG language, represents a genuine deprioritisation or simply a repackaging. I would argue the underlying metrics have largely been maintained even where the language has changed, and that the European and UK regulatory picture makes any meaningful retreat from sustainability untenable for firms operating in this market. 

Second, the product dimension. Sustainability often gets framed around disclosure and reporting. What is more interesting is where it shapes product design, infrastructure decisions, and service development. The untapped opportunity for Payment Service Providers is in using transaction data to help merchants understand and report on their environmental footprint a value-added service that creates commercial stickiness. That then becomes a conversation about product strategy, not CSR. 

Third, and I think this will resonate particularly with the procurement and commercial leaders in the room, is the question of when sustainability tips from being a differentiator to a qualifying criterion. Because once it becomes de facto rather than a 'nice to have', the competitive game changes entirely. 

ML: Finally, what do you hope attendees take away from the session and the wider conversations happening at the event? 

MM: One practical takeaway above all others: embed sustainability into your commercial and business strategy now, even if you do not yet fall within the scope of the regulation. Because you will eventually, and the firms that started early will have the governance frameworks, the partnerships, and the culture to make it work. The ones that wait will be scrambling to comply while their competitors are using it to win. 

At Pay360 today, established market leaders, innovative upstarts, and payment innovators are meeting to swap ideas that will shape the future of the industry. When 200 speakers and 6,000 practitioners are in the same building, you hear what is happening, not what companies want you to think is happening. That is where the genuinely useful insights come from. 

I am hoping attendees leave with a clearer sense that the payments industry's obligations to accessibility, to inclusion, to environmental responsibility are not in conflict with commercial success. They are a route to it.  

And if someone leaves that panel and decides to just start, even imperfectly, even at a small scale, that's progress. Progress over perfection is exactly the right approach for a sector that has historically been better at processing transactions than communicating its values. Pay360 is a good place to change that. 

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Author: Mariel Laxamana, Marketing Director, Manila, Payments Consulting Network and Merchant Advisory 

Mariel brings over 14 years of professional experience spanning news production, events, client servicing, and digital marketing. She began her career managing newscasts for a leading television network in the Philippines and now leads the digital marketing team at Payments Consulting Network, overseeing the global digital presence for both PCN and Merchant Advisory. 

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Ecommpay is a member of our Payment Service Provider Panel. 

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Payments Consulting Network is a media partner of Pay360 2026 happening today at Hall S6, Excel, London.