A thank you from us and the Danes want to go cashless
This is my first editorial since the Contactless Intelligence Conference, the Open Standards Forum and the Mobile ID Forum - not to mention the ever entertaining Contactless & Mobile Awards. This is my big ‘thank you’ to all that helped, the sponsors, the moderators, the speakers, the panelists and those who attended, listened and took part in the conversations. You know who you are and we really, really appreciate your support.
I want to take a moment to thank both Nick Mackie of Visa Europe and Matthew Hudson of TfL for giving the keynote sessions. Nick made the point that contactless for payment was becoming ‘standard’. What this really means is that the technology and processes now have a solid foundation to move into other areas and embrace other form factors. Things could really start to get interesting from this point onwards. Stuart McLay from First group and Dominique Descolas from Digimobee also took us through contactless in the transportation sector. My take-away from their talks? This could be the next big area for contactless, payment and verification all rolled into one.
Thanks to Arnaud Parfait, VINCI Park and Emmanuel Jamin from Orange and Lewis Zimbler from Nayax UK for their talks in the unattended sessions. Another growth area waiting to be ‘tapped’ - excuse the pun!
A real highlight in the conference agenda was the session on humanitarian aid and charity innovation. From Cancer Research (Paul Weaver) to Ram Bannerjee (Transaxiom) the audience was totally wrapped up in this topic. We even had the Penny for London charity (part of the Mayor’s Fund for London), pick up our conference Twitter thread only moments before the session started and rush over to join us. We were more than happy to see them and let them get involved. To all of you who gave to ‘Save the Children’ through the contactless donation units (courtesy of Visa Europe) - thank you. Every contribution helps.
Our final session of the day was retail and my thanks go out to Andrew Elia (Arishi Media Technologies), Stefan Gurney (Norwich BID), Dr. Neil Garner (Proxama) and to Ercan Kilic (GS1 Germany). Talking about contactless spreading into the retail ecosystem and enhancing the customer experience is something that remains interesting no matter how ‘standard’ the act of contactless payment becomes. And to - finally - see some movement not only in Germany but right in our back garden (Berlin, that is) gives us hope that there will be rapid regional expansion, too.
For chairing the working groups I want to thank Terry Heath, John Devlin, Richard Warren, Jim Birch, Kevin Farquharson and Chris Aldridge. Thanks to Ram Bannerjee for moderating and of course, to Mark Jones for MC'ing on the night.
Congratulations to our CMA winners;
- Contactless Payment Collaboration – Zapp (United Kingdom)
- Retail – Sunoco and Verifone (USA)
- Transportation and Ticketing – Transport for London (United Kingdom)
- Innovation – Clear Channel (United Kingdom)
- Customer Experience – ING Bank Śląski (Poland)
- Loyalty – S-Bank (Finland)
- Marketing Campaign – Saatchi & Saatchi (Switzerland)
- Unattended – Nayax (Israel)
- Eco-System – MSI Global (Singapore)
- Contactless ID & Security – Airside Mobile (USA)
- Gamechanger – Cubic Transportation Systems and Transport for London (United Kingdom)
- Industry Awards – SMARTLINK (Switzerland)
Congratulations also to Tami Hargreaves, Barclaycard (United Kingdom) for her win of the Visa Contactless Award for Contribution to Contactless and to Emanuele Cacciatore, Bank Pekao (Poland) for the Visa Contactless Business Leader of the Year Award.
If I’ve missed anyone - I’m sorry. It’s been a hectic few weeks but please know that we appreciate all your help and involvement in the event. In fact, you may be able to catch yourself on camera by watching our impressions video of the event. I think it’s pretty good this year (although, obviously, I’m biased!).
Before I wrap up - one little news story caught my eye this week. In the last few months the UK has been caught in election fever (or should that be doldrums?) with each party promising all kinds of incentives to stimulate the economy and move it forward. The Danish, however, are a very different story altogether. The current Danish government is outlining, as part of a pre-election package of economic measures, the creation of a completely cashless economy.
Yes, you read that correctly – a cashless economy. But the strange thing is – it’s not as far fetched as you would imagine. Nearly a third of the Danish population uses MobilePay, a smartphone application for transferring money to other phones and shops, and Sweden, Denmark and Finland lead the European Union in credit card payments per inhabitant. The Danish government said that as of next year, businesses such as clothing retailers, petrol stations and restaurants should no longer be legally bound to accept cash. The proposal is unlikely to meet much opposition in Denmark, where it is common to use debit or credit cards for the smallest of payments. Lobbyists for the move have pointed out many of the benefits that would result from such a move: security, time saved etc.
Not everyone agrees with such a move though, the Germans – in particular – have been very vocal in their opposition: “Abolishing cash would hurt consumer sovereignty – the free choice of citizens about their payment instruments,” said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, of the German Bundesbank. “Government agencies do not have the right to tell citizens how they should pay.” In my opinion, Herr Thiele is missing the point – no one is telling anyone how to pay – simply offering a choice on a massive scale. After all, it’s an election promise – people will have to vote on it first and if there is one thing that we have learnt in the last few days - the voting electorate can surprise the hell out of you!
Thanks for reading, normal editorial service will resume next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
EXTRA: Here’s a little piece of trivia for you; the husband of the Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt is Stephen Kinnock (son of Neil Kinnock - the one time leader of the labour party 83-92)who just became a Labour MP in Aberavon, Wales in the last election. Small world, no?
