Dear Readers,
Please excuse me if this weeks editorial feels a little like a Visa-sponsored affair but the last days were rather Visa centric on the news front. For example, Visa Europe went on record to say that by the end of 2013 there will be approximately 80 handsets certified by Visa to handle payment and 40 issuers with mobile or contactless payment services across Europe. These predictions were made during the release of the company's fiscal 2012 annual results.
Other figures in that release included the amount of payWave cards in the UK (the largest market to date for payWave) at the moment - 26 million approximately - with around 143,000 terminals that could accept payWave. And, looking into the future, it forecasts that there will be 33.7 million payWave cards on issue in the UK by the end of 2013 accepted at 175,000 contactless POS terminals. (http://bit.ly/11E2I0y)
Visa Europe invested over €1billion in its technology and infrastructure over the past six years, building, it says, a robust and secure European payments platform from which to deliver the next generation of payment technologies. Throughout mainland Europe, Visa is continuing to develop the contactless payment landscape. Poland, Turkey, France and Spain have been high on the list of countries embracing contactless payments over the last few years.
Germany, however, still lags behind. According to Hans-Bernhard Beykirch, VP VISA Europe Services Inc., speaking at last week's Omnicard in Berlin, this is currently due to the fact that of the 70+ existing contactless terminals, only three are certified to be used in Germany, and one of those three can't be delivered at the moment. Major retail chains, looking out for their bottom line, will not start tenders for a new terminal infrastructure with this meagre offering, he argued.
But not all is bad on the German contactless front. The massively influential Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV) has started to roll out its girogo contactless debit cards nationwide with a planned 23 Mio cards issued by the end of 2013 and 45 Mio by the end of 2015 by which time the complete reader infrastructure will be set up. German retail giant Douglas is a little ahead there, announcing last week that their retail brands will be accepting contactless and mobile payments from spring this year. A small step for the global market, but a giant step for Germany. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1f5
It also looks as though this is the year for mobile payments on a BlackBerry. BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM) announced last week that their Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution for NFC mobile payments has been approved by Visa. This is good news for the beleaguered handset maker and saw its share price rise more than 5% on the news. “RIM’s success in gaining Visa’s formal approval as secure element manager is a crucial step in expanding RIM’s role as a key security partner for mobile payment solutions around the globe,” said Andy Castonguay, Principal Analyst, at Informa Telecoms & Media. RIM should be very happy then, back on the playing field of the growing mobile payments market. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eF
V.me - Visa's integrated digital wallet service – will continue to see a rollout through out 2013 in the UK, France and Spain (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1ev). In the UK, banks representing 80% of all consumers are already committed, while by 2020, Visa Europe believes that one-third of all European consumers will be using the V.me wallet. Visa Europe appears to mean serious business on a European scale this year if comments made by Visa Europe's Chief Executive, Peter Ayliffe is to be believed, “As we continue to see the explosive adoption of mobile devices, our priority in 2013 is to give consumers faster, safer mobile ways to pay. The past six years have been about preparing and building the European payments infrastructure to support European commerce and the delivery of new payment technologies. The year ahead will see us putting mobile contactless payments into consumers’ hands and introducing digital wallets on a mass scale for the first time”.
The UK's Payments Council also unveiled plans of its own mobile payments service that is to be launched next spring (2014). According to the Payments Council the new service will enable secure payments to be made directly to or from an account without the need to disclose the sort code and account number, by simply using a mobile phone number as a proxy. Eight financial institutions, including Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Metro Bank PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland plc and Santander UK plc (representing 90% of UK current accounts) have already committed to offering the new service from spring 2014, with discussions continuing for more institutions to join. The new mobile payments service will move money directly between accounts using tried and tested payment schemes: the Faster Payments service, which processed more than 800 million online and phone banking payments in 2012; and the LINK network, which processed 3.1 billion real-time ATM transactions last year. A service such as this could see Mobile payments/banking really grow up to mainstream acceptance. (http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eO)
Perhaps not contactless as such but definitely cashless, an impending payment service for bars, pubs and restaurant caught our eye last week. The company is called MyCheck, and the app is due to be launched in London on 15th January, providing an alternative way to pay without the need for credit cards and cash in the aforementioned eating and drinking establishments. (http://wp.me/pQLgk-P3) Initially launched in Tel Aviv, where it has been adopted by over 80% of the city’s leading bars, pubs, restaurants, MyCheck is a a free, working mobile phone application that allows people to check themselves out of a restaurant, pub or bar without having to wait for the bill. The application is completely integrated with restaurant / bar point-of-sale systems and that removes the need for an embedded chip in smartphones to make payments. You can find out more by visiting their site mycheckapp.com.
Finally, 2013 could also be the year that PayPal make it into the high street. In May 2012, PayPal made a commitment to sign-up a total of 20 large national retailers by the end of 2012 for its in-store payments platform, in which consumers pay for items using a physical 'Access' card or by punching a mobile phone number and PIN into the terminal. Reporting from the National Retail Federation show in the US, PayPal says that it exceeded its target and signed deals with 23 large retailers representing 18,000 bricks and mortar locations nationwide. PayPal has openly scoffed at the NFC-based mobile wallet approach, from the likes of Google and Isis. They instead prefer to see the handset as a payment device that can be serviced from the cloud to simplify the shopping experience for consumers. Something that all terminal manufacturers are talking about these days.
NCR certainly thinks they may be on to something. The company will integrate PayPal mobile payment options into the recently announced NCR Mobile Pay application and NCR Aloha Online Ordering. Designed for the more than 60,000 restaurant sites using NCR Aloha point-of-sale technology, NCR Mobile Pay enables restaurant visitors with a smartphone to browse their bill, re-order menu items, alert their waiter, complete surveys (why would you do that over a meal?) and pay. So does this mean that by using my phone I may not have to interact with rude waiters at all? Thanks NCR and PayPal! Now if only my smartphone could get them to bring my food on time.
Of course, this means that even the mobile payment service from PayPal falls down if you don't have a smartphone. Can you guess where I'm going with this? Regular readers will. If you need a smartphone - why not enter the January INTELLIGENCE? Once more Samsung (supporting the OSPT Alliance) is offering a Samsung Galaxy SIII if you can go to this page on the Contactless Intelligence site, read a bit of text, answer five simple questions, note the answers in a pre-prepared form and hit the 'send' button. What could be easier? And I don't want to sound alarmist but what happens if you find yourself in one of these restaurants and you don't have a smartphone and no-one serves you? Oh, wait - that's my normal modus operandi in restaurants. Better bring a sandwich - just in case! Go on, enter this months INTELLIGENCE here
Until next week.
Regards,
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
This week on C-ITV
Payments Council counts down payment on mobile http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eO
Crédit Agricole launches first contactless payment project in Portugal http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eJ
Change your dining experience with NCR - pay with PayPal⁰ http://wp.me/pQLgk-Pf
Visa approval for RIM for mobile payment solution http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eF
Visa readies V.me digital wallet service for 2013 release – continues focus on contactless payments http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1ev
VeriFone want retailers to Interact. Impact. Impress. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1eq
Eat and run in London, without waiting for the bill... http://wp.me/pQLgk-P3
The January INTELLIGENCE is open! Win a SAMSUNG Galaxy SIII. http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1e2
MasterCard extends PayPass reach further into Africa http://wp.me/pQLgk-P7
Change your dining experience with NCR - pay with PayPal http://wp.me/pQLgk-Pf
Ingenico partners with Microsoft to ensure secure retail innovation http://wp.me/p20YVg-ez
DOUGLAS Group gets a strong 'whiff' of mobile payments http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1f5
Gluu integrates YubiKey for secure hard token USB and NFC Two-Factor Authentication http://wp.me/p20YVg-eF
Identive Launches New NFC Developer Kits http://wp.me/p1Jrjn-1f0
Bango and Telefónica announce global mobile payments partnership http://wp.me/s1Jrjn-4772
Payments & m-Commerce
U.S. Bank Launches ‘Go Mobile’ Beta in Two Cities with iPhone NFC Add-On http://bit.ly/SCAQHy
U.S. Merchant Group MCX to Launch with Bar-Code, Cloud Technologies; Not NFC Initially http://bit.ly/SCC1ql
Visa’s Gajda sees NFC as the key to mainstream mobile payments http://bit.ly/SCBRzh
Think&Go upgrades NFC Shopping system http://bit.ly/SCBMM3
Telefonica Slovakia, Tatra banka offer NFC payments http://bit.ly/SCBBAa
Visa: e-commerce now a quarter of UK Visa spend at £96bn http://bit.ly/ZW8ntt
PayPal's assault on the high street picks up pace http://bit.ly/SCEDEF
P&T Luxembourg launches mobile payments at post offices http://bit.ly/ZW8IfT
Visa Europe Predicts 40 Issuers of Contactless-Mobile Payment Services in 2013 http://bit.ly/ZW8God
UK banks get behind m-payments service ahead of 2014 launch http://bit.ly/ZW8zZW
Visa Taiwan Announces Growing payWave Transactions, Higher Tap-to-Pay Limit http://bit.ly/ZW8vct
NFC & Mobile
How to reprogram NFC tags from a smartphone http://bit.ly/11DEOCq
Major Smartphone Chip Supplier MediaTek Introduces NFC Chip http://bit.ly/SCANeI
RIM Pushes TSM Services to Telcos in Competition with SIM Suppliers http://bit.ly/W8aJ72
Transportation, Ticketing, Access, Security & Loyalty
Outdoor NFC Campaign Promotes Australian Launch of Zero Dark Thirty http://bit.ly/W8aAAE
South Downs Way gets NFC sign posts http://bit.ly/SCAUa8
Boston: Straight to ticketing on your smart phone for public transport. http://bit.ly/W8b2Pj
Vancouver: Civil libertarians fear Compass cards privacy at risk http://bit.ly/W8aTv9
Other News & Opinion Articles
Cashless and cardless, take 2 http://bit.ly/SCEuRB
Apple Doesn't Want To Streamline the Point Of Sale, It Wants To
Tear It Down http://read.bi/13KTSh5
The Future of Commerce Starts With a Tap http://bit.ly/13KTJtM
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The promise of NFC and the importance of Trust.
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By Jürgen Spaenkuch, Vice President and General Manager Platform Security of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies
Nearly a decade since it was first introduced, Near Field Communication (NFC) is entering the consumer technology mass market. Soon to be available on hundreds of millions of smart phones and portable personal information devices such as tablet computers, NFC provides a short-range wireless data connection that enables an array of new consumer services. Many of these services, in particular those described as electronic wallet functions, utilize information that users want to keep private. In fact, high confidence that personal data and financial transactions are protected is critical to wide market success for NFC.
Wide market success of NFC is hinged on three related aspects of system security: trust that personal and financial data used in applications remains confidential, flexibility of the security technology available to handset manufacturers and service providers, and overall system performance, which translates to consumer satisfaction with the convenience of NFC applications. To best meet these challenges, hardware-based security is mandatory. Different business models and implementations also have to be considered.
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![]() Simply put, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology promises new levels of convenience for users of mobile devices. With the widespread adoption of smart phones across the global communications marketplace, powerful, easy-to-use computing is now ubiquitous. Consumers now expect that a single device can be used to access a suite of converged services that use the mobile network for communications, entertainment and increasingly, commerce. With Near Field Communication (NFC), the same mobile device becomes a platform for new applications that will massively enhance the total consumer experience using smart phones and related portable information devices.
Established as an international standard (ISO/IEC 18092) NFC uses the principle of magnetic induction coupling to create a 13.56 MHz radio signal when two devices are within very close range (up to 10 cm/4 in.) of each other. This close proximity underlies the description of NFC as a “tap and use” technology. In effect, users touch an NFC device to a compatible reader or other NFC equipped passive or active device to create the link. An NFC target can be another mobile device, a terminal or reader device (for example, in a retail store) or an NFC tag embedded in a sign.
The integration of NFC in mobile devices marks a new stage in the evolution of personal mobility. Even a short list of the potential services and new conveniences made possible by NFC illustrates the potential scope and impact of the technology.
For information exchange, including reading NFC tags embedded in posters and everyday objects, as well as easy connectivity between NFC-enabled electronic devices.
“Smart” posters and consumer products that consumers can tap to learn more about events, special offers, etc.
New types of “check-in” for location-based marketing and consumer reward services.
Device-Pairing for easy connectivity of electronic devices, such as headsets and cell phones, without the multi-step configuration typical of other wireless technologies.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) connections between NFC devices that allow controlled sharing of
information and an easier, more secure way to identify devices and connect them to an existing computer network.
As an electronic wallet, NFC enables contactless transactions and personal access. It can reduce the number of specialized cards people carry in a wallet or purse today and it creates exciting new possibilities.
Based on card emulation, the NFC-enabled device acts just like a consumer charge/debit card issued by a financial institution.
Tickets for transport services and events can be purchased electronically and stored in the device memory.
Electronic keys: ranging from a simple substitute for card keys used to gain building or office access to a “smart key” for a family auto that automatically recognizes the individual driver.
It is the wide range of both information exchange and e-wallet applications that makes NFC a potentially “game changing” technology. Given this wide array of potential services and applications, the expectation for an exponential increase of NFC in mobile devices is not surprising. Growth from approximately 35 million NFC-enabled handsets in 2011 to more than 900 million by 2016 is forecasted by IMS Research (Jan 2012). By 2016, 44% of all handset shipped will be NFC enabled.
(click here to continue reading)
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