Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Is Your Business PCI Compliant?
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance is a group of practices that govern data security across credit and debit card payments. Businesses must comply with the requirements outlined by the PCI Security Standards Council in order for their merchant account to stay in good standing.
Every business that accepts credit/debit cards must abide by these PCI standards, no matter what processing method they use. BluePay has compiled a simple guide answering some frequently asked questions as well as debunking a couple myths about PCI compliance.
Nets and Oberthur Technologies Offer Mobile Payments to Scandinavian Banks
Nets, a payments service provider in Northern Europe, and OT (Oberthur Technologies), a global provider of embedded security software products, services and solutions, are partnering to service banks with a financial platform to support future international mobile payment means in the Nordics. [Read more…]
Kohl’s to Launch Mobile Payments
Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) announced today the nationwide launch of Kohl’s Pay, a mobile payment option which integrates the Kohl’s Charge private label credit card into Kohl’s mobile app. Kohl’s Pay allows more than 25 million active card holders across the country to pay for their in-store purchases with their Kohl’s Charge card directly from their mobile device. Kohl’s Pay also its customers to apply their Kohl’s offers, Kohl’s Cash and Yes2You Rewards with a single transaction right from the mobile device at checkout.
“Kohl’s Pay truly redefines convenience for our loyal Kohl’s Charge customers by simplifying the checkout and payment experience – making it easier than ever to shop in store this holiday season,” said Ratnakar Lavu, Kohl’s chief technology officer. “We’re combining value and convenience by bringing together the incredible savings opportunities that our customers love like Kohl’s Cash and our Yes2You Rewards loyalty program with the ability to pay with a Kohl’s Charge, all from your mobile device.”
Integrated Commerce Experience
With Kohl’s Pay, savings opportunities are organically built into the experience, allowing customers to automatically redeem offers, Kohl’s Cash and Yes2You Rewards that are saved in their mobile wallet and pay for their purchases with their Kohl’s Charge in one transaction. Additionally, every Kohl’s Pay transaction is stored on customers’ mobile devices allowing them the opportunity to easily make a return or an exchange right from the Kohl’s App.
How It Works
To use Kohl’s Pay in store, Kohl’s customers save their Kohl’s Charge information to Kohl’s Pay within the Kohl’s App on their iOS or Android device. To pay for their purchase at checkout, customers can launch the Kohl’s App and select Kohl’s Pay from the menu options to bring up the Kohl’s Pay QR code reader. Once a QR code appears on the customer display at point of sale, customers can scan the code using their mobile device, apply their savings offers and Kohl’s Cash then tap approve to complete their transaction using Kohl’s Pay.
Source: Business Wire
Apple in Talks with Banks to Develop Mobile Person-to-Person Payment Service – Update – NASDAQ.com
Apple Inc. is in discussions with U.S. banks to develop a mobile person-to-person payment service that would compete with PayPal Inc.’s popular Venmo platform, according to people familiar with the talks.
The talks are ongoing, and it is unclear if any of the banks have struck an agreement with Apple, these people said. Key details remain in flux, including technical aspects that would determine how the service would tie into the banking industry’s existing infrastructure, they said.
Read more, via: Nasdaq
Retailers Remain Skeptical of Apple Pay
In a January earnings call with investors, Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made a confident prediction: “2015 will be the year of Apple Pay,” he said. Since then, the company has aggressively courted retailers – and claimed significant success. “We’ve spoken to all of the top 100 merchants in the U.S., and about half will accept Apple Pay this year, with many more the following year,” a company spokesperson recently told Reuters.
[Read more…]
Android Pay to Work with MasterCard
Today, Google unveiled Android Pay, which will enable MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid and small business cardholders to use their Android phones for everyday purchases in-store and within Android apps. [Read more…]
Android Pay Coming… to Eat Apple’s Lunch?
Google may be unveiling a new mobile payments platform called Android Pay at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. It should be well integrated with Google’s Android mobile operating system, and could very well beat Apple Pay in its features and functionality. [Read more…]
Global Mobile Payments to Reach 50 Billion Transactions in 2015
The mobile payment market worldwide continued rapid growth in 2014, according to a new report by Hamburg based secondary research company yStats.com. The publication, “Global Mobile Payment Methods” discloses that while competition in the mobile payments field has intensified worldwide, acceptance and usage of in-store mobile payments and the preferences of shoppers towards payment methods in remote M-Commerce differed from country to country. A general trend is the lingering concern of consumers towards security of mobile payment transactions.
[Read more…]
Strategic Alliance Brings Cloud-based Mobile Payments to Asia Pacific Region
SimplyTapp, PromptNow and TIS have created the Asian Payments Cloud initiative to bring the first end-to-end, cloud-based payments solution to the banking and financial services community in the APAC region. The offering allows financial institutions and card issuers to provide a better customer experience to their growing customer segment of Android users by enabling them to use their devices for proximity payments and other real-world transactions. [Read more…]
Why 2015 May (finally) Be the Year of Mobile Payments
The promise of ubiquitous mobile payments has been on the horizon for years, but actual usage has been slow to take off in the US and Europe. When TechRader’s David Nield wrote about “the year of mobile payments” finally arriving, the company that figures most prominently in his article is Zapp, a UK firm that puts near real-time payments on people’s mobile phones through their existing mobile banking application. Zapp is backed by some of the largest financial services companies and retailers and, if Nield is correct, may finally lead the grand debut of the mass adoption of mobile payments.
[Read more…]