Mobile Payment Magazine

Mobile Parking Company NOW! Innovations Gets Investment from Estonian Development Fund

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The Estonian Development Fund, together with private co-investors has invested 1.5 million EUR in NOW! Innovations. The company has developed a payment platform for parking and other purposes, already operational in a number of countries.

NOW! Innovations’ main market is the United States, where the ParkNOW! mobile parking service is among the market leaders. The largest client is Montgomery County in Greater Washington D.C., which is also with more then 14 000 parking spaces the second largest mobile parking installation anywhere in the U.S. New installations are pending in a number of other markets, including Russia, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, and Singapore.

According to Heidi Kakko, Head of Investment Division at the Estonian Development Fund, the mobile parking market is still in the early development stages in most markets, unlike in Estonia and a few other European countries, where up to 90% of all parking sessions are paid with a mobile phone. “We believe that the markets will be divided during the next five years. The biggest winners will be the companies with experience, offering a Solution as a Service. We bet on NOW! Innovations with it’s top quality platform and experience to become the market leader in the U.S. market. The size of the parking market in North America and Europe only is estimated at 65 billion dollars.”

Kalju Rüütli, CEO and one of the founders of NOW! Innovations: “The ParkNOW! platform was built based on years of experience of providing IT services to large telecommunications companies and working together with major international parking operators. The platform is highly modular and flexible, thanks to which it was for example very smooth to adapt it to NFC technology.”

NOW! Innovations was established in 2003, and it specializes on solutions for issuing mobile permits and tickets. It is among the five leading providers of mobile parking solutions in Europe and America. Last year it was selected the 13th most outstanding company in the world by Guidewire Group, a global market intelligence and advisory firm.

Estonian Development Fund has been established by the Estonian Parliament for promoting foresighted projects and investing in innovative ambitious Estonian technology enterprises. NOW! Innovations is the 12th investment in their portfolio.

Source: NOW! Innovations

Direct Response Form (DRF) for Payment Professionals: San Diego, CA August 8-11, 2011

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The Direct Response Forum (DRF), the premier trade association for payments professionals, with over 500 members, will hold its annual forum on Monday, August 8th through Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 in sunny San Diego. The DRF annually draws top tier experts from the field of card-not-present transactions. This year’s meeting will be hosted by Digital River, a global provider of ecommerce solutions.

This year’s Direct Response Forum, Cruising Through Payment Challenges, will provide a variety of educational sessions designed to give direct merchants real-time strategies for streamlining payment processes and cutting costs. The educational sessions will feature leading experts including:

  • Dr. Topher Morrison, author, “Bullet Proof – How To Survive In A Slow Economy”
  • Mark Sanborn, author, “The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary”
  • Jay Hawkins, Sr. Economist, Visa International, 2011 Economic Trends In Payments
  • Anita Boomstein, Partner, Hughes, Hubbard, & Reed, LLP, Legal and Regulatory Update

“Many of the top retailers in the world, collectively conducting billions of dollars in credit card transactions annually, attend the Direct Response Forum. This is the event to attend if you want to learn the best practices in the payment industry,” says Chantal Gaspie, DRF Executive Chair.

DRF 2011 will include valuable information on the latest trends in mobile payments, data security, chargebacks, global payment strategies, regulatory issues, prepaid card insights, and recurring payment challenges.

More information: Direct Response Forum

First Data mBanking Solution Adopted by Texas Banks

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American Bank of Texas, Marble Falls, Texas, and Waggoner National Bank, Vernon, Texas, have launched First Data’s Mobile Manager – mBanking solution. The offering is now available to their Internet banking customers following a successful internal pilot period. First Data Corporation is a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing.

With the First Data Mobile Manager – mBanking solution, financial institutions can rapidly implement mobile banking with robust functionality. This solution integrates seamlessly with First Data’s FundsXpress online banking platform, enabling a consistent experience with the same capabilities as online banking on a mobile device, and only one set of logon credentials to manage.

First Data offers the Mobile Manager – mBanking solution as a fully hosted and integrated service. This results in substantially lower costs for a financial institution than developing a solution in-house. Since launching Mobile Manager – mBanking at the beginning of 2011, First Data has signed 60 financial institutions for the service.

“After piloting this solution internally, we saw firsthand that it had the capabilities our customers are looking for,” said Mark Few, executive vice president, American Bank of Texas. “The implementation was painless – especially considering the complexity of the product – but integration is only the first step. We also feel confident that, because we have chosen First Data for our mobile solution, we will be able to keep pace as the mobile marketplace evolves.”

First Data‘s Mobile Manager – mBanking product enables financial institutions to offer all three modes of mobile banking: SMS, mobile web, and downloadable applications, including a uniquely branded iPhone app available through the App Store online store. First Data plans to roll out the same capabilities for Android phones, with availability in the Android Market during the first half of 2011.

The ability to offer all three modes is key for financial institutions that wish to position themselves for success as mobile banking providers. According to the 2010 Mobile Banking and Smartphone Forecast  from Javelin Strategy & Research, consumers who bank with their mobile phones do so using all three methods, yet fewer than half of the financial institutions researched by Javelin offered all three modes in 2010.

“Partnering with First Data has expanded mFoundry’s reach and made our award-winning mobile banking product accessible to an even larger base of customers,” said Drew Sievers, CEO and co-founder, mFoundry. “This relationship results in a powerful solution that offers robust mobile capabilities without the technological hurdles of implementing them – enabling financial institutions that have more limited development resources to meet the challenge of the marketplace.”

First Data’s Mobile Manager service is part of a comprehensive mobile commerce suite that includes contactless cards solutions and a Trusted Service Manager (TSM) platform.

“Mobile banking is an important stepping stone on the path to full mobile commerce,” said Dom Morea, First Data division manager of Mobile Commerce Solutions. “This powerful combination of technology from mFoundry and First Data, along with our high level of client support, creates a scalable solution that enables our clients of all sizes and charters to join in this evolution.”
Source: First Data

BilltoMobile Demonstrates Mobile Payments Via GSMA’s OneAPI Gateway

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BilltoMobile, a leading provider of mobile payments for online purchases in the United States, has announced that it has been selected by the GSMA as a demonstration partner to showcase how mobile payments can be made in the United States via the GSMA’s OneAPI Gateway. The demonstration at the GSMA Mobile World Congress this week will illustrate how the BilltoMobile payment gateway can be connected to the GSMA OneAPI Gateway, allowing online merchant sites and developers to enable mobile payments to 65 per cent of all U.S. wireless subscribers.

BilltoMobile’s secure payment gateway is directly connected to the top two U.S. carriers’ billing, authentication and customer care systems. Purchases take seconds to complete, require no pre-registration or special hardware, and have no association with credit or bank cards. Purchases appear directly on the subscriber’s wireless bill, with no interest charges or subscriber fees of any kind.

“We’re very pleased to be working with BilltoMobile to demonstrate how we can expand the reach of the GSMA OneAPI Gateway to include mobile payment capabilities throughout North America,” said Graham Trickey, Senior Director at the GSMA. “BilltoMobile’s low-cost, robust and secure mobile payment gateway has allowed us to extend the reach of the GSMA OneAPI payment service and to enable the services that people really want in a clear, simple and secure way.”

BilltoMobile launched the United States’ first Direct Mobile Billing (DMB) service for Verizon Wireless’ subscribers in May 2010, attracting a number of prominent online game companies, and a wide range of digital goods and services merchants that offer the BilltoMobile payment option on their web sites. In October 2010, BilltoMobile launched its same proprietary DMB service in partnership with AT&T. Today, BilltoMobile is the only mobile payments company in the U.S. with direct-to-carrier billing agreements with two top U.S. carriers —reaching over 180 million U.S. mobile payment-capable subscribers.

Denise Archer, VP Carrier Partnerships, BilltoMobile, said, “We are very proud to be part of the GSMA OneAPI initiative, supporting the organization in reaching its ease-of-access goals, and demonstrating how quickly and easily we can expand the reach of the current GSMA OneAPI Gateway to offer mobile payments to their merchants in the United States.”

San Jose-based BilltoMobile is a privately held U.S. company that is providing Direct Mobile Billing to carriers in North America. BilltoMobile’s strategic partner, Danal Co., Ltd (Seoul, So. Korea), has integrated its financial-grade Direct Mobile Billing service with 14 carriers in Korea, Taiwan and China.

Source: Marketwire

Belgium’s Financial and Mobile Telephone Sectors to Develop New NFC Mobile Payment System

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The Belgian financial sector and the Belgian mobile telephone companies—Belgacom, BASE (KPN Group Belgium) and Mobistar—have partnered to launch a new mobile payment system in Belgium. Currently, they are planning to develop a product that will be accessible to the public at large with a launch date in 2011.

The continuous technological improvements, the growing range of mobile telephone functions (telephone calls, SMS messages, pictures/images, internet access, etc.) and the ever increasing user-friendliness have turned the mobile telephone into an indispensable tool for all Belgian citizens. Consequently, the financial sector, which wants to give a new boost to electronic payments in Belgium, and the telecom sector have begun planning new steps forward in the payment systems space.

The aim of the partnership is for these complementary industries to put their experience, know-how and expertise together so as to offer a new standard product for mobile payments in the Belgian market. The plans focus on payments security and user-friendliness of the new product for consumers and merchants alike. The purpose is to make it possible for consumers to swiftly use their mobile as an electronic wallet for the standard payment of small amounts (maximum 25 EUR). The system will be based on the use of SMS and contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

In practice, this new and fully mobile system will allow consumers to use their mobile for paying their car park ticket, bus fare, drinks and even their online purchases. This technological innovation also creates new opportunities for merchants in the field of payments.

The new system is the result of a close cooperation between the financial sector and the telecom sector. Both sectors are convinced that the development of a standard product is one of the key factors for a fast and effective growth of mobile payments in Belgium. The new payment system is scheduled for launch in 2011.

Source: WebWire

Partnership Between NTT DOCOMO and KT Corp Will Bring Cross-border NFC Services to Japan and South Korea

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NTT DOCOMO has partnered with South Korea’s leading telecom operator, KT Corporation, to use near field communication (NFC) technologies to develop cross-border services for mobile payments, mass-transit ticketing, promotional coupons and other NFC applications. The services will launch in their respective markets of Japan and South Korea from around the end of 2012.

Through their joint Business & Technology Cooperation Committee, the two companies are developing NFC common specifications that will be incorporated in devices, networks and billing platforms for seamlessly connected mobile NFC services. Customers travelling between South Korea and Japan will access the services using compatible Android handsets embedded with contactless IC chips.

DOCOMO also plans to submit an outline of the common specifications to global industry associations and standardization bodies, such as the GSM Association.

With the ultimate goal of building an international environment for compatible NFC services, DOCOMO has formed strategic tie-ups with payment technology company brand Visa Inc., NFC chip and mobile handset manufacturer Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and SIM card vendor Gemalto N.V. In addition, DOCOMO will collaborate with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd. and bitWallet, Inc. for enhanced cross-border services.

To prepare for the services, DOCOMO and KT will accelerate development of their existing infrastructures, as well as solicit the participation of NFC-based service providers in various industries. DOCOMO has been providing NFC-based Osaifu-Keitai™ mobile-wallet services in Japan since 2004. KT has been operating a post-paid mass transit service in South Korea since 2002.

DOCOMO will demonstrate the envisioned international NFC services at its exhibition booth during Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, Spain from February 14-17.

Hyunmi Yang, Executive Vice President of KT, said, “Based on our long commercial experience in various financial-convergence services, the NFC collaboration between KT & DOCOMO will contribute to building a sustainable global ecosystem.”

Bill Gajda, Head of Visa Mobile, Visa Inc., said, “Visa has been instrumental in developing the global standard for mobile payments based on NFC technology. We welcome this project and see great value in extending the security, convenience and global interoperability of NFC-based mobile payments to consumers in Japan and Korea.”

“We are delighted to work with NTT DOCOMO by providing competitive NFC IC technology to develop an NFC ecosystem that offers retail and commercial customers a very high degree of convenience, services, interactivity and security on their mobile devices. Thus, we believe this business collaboration will lead to a market-leading solution, new innovation and broad commercial acceptance around the globe,” said Dr. Dojun Rhee, Vice President of the Marketing Team, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

“Gemalto is delighted to contribute its world-leading NFC expertise for DOCOMO’s deployment of cross-border mobile contactless services,” commented Tan Teck-Lee, President, Gemalto Asia.

Hideo Otsuka, General Manager of the IT Business Dept. of Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd., said, “We’ll aggressively collaborate more with DOCOMO so that we could develop new, fascinating cross-border payment services based on NFC technologies.”

Kazumasa Miyazawa, Chief Strategy Officer, Head of the International Business Dept. of bitWallet, Inc., said, “The specifications announced today are an ideal solution for the development of NFC services worldwide. Through their adoption, we aim to introduce seamless Edy services worldwide.”

via NTT DOCOMO Press Releases | ComSoc Communities.

PaymentOne Partners With BilltoMobile to Offer Direct Mobile Billing

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Two of the leading mobile payment and carrier billing companies in the world have agreed to provide merchants and consumers with a seamless and secure mobile payment experience.

San Jose-based PaymentOne has partnered with BilltoMobile to offer PaymentOne merchants and customers more competitive payouts and advanced security compared to premium SMS through the BilltoMobile Direct Mobile Billing DMB payment service which is directly connected into the carrier billing system.

PaymentOne Corp., founded in 2000 and profitable since 2005, continues to experience exponential growth as the only provider to offer billing to mobile, broadband and fixed landline carriers through the PaymentOne AnyPhone solution.

PaymentOne has processed more than $4 Billion in retail charges for virtual goods and subscription services on carrier bills. PaymentOne’s AnyPhone Network reaches 3 billion consumer bills in more than 70 countries through contracts with over 1,100 operators.

BilltoMobile, and its strategic investor, Danal, Co., Ltd Seoul, Korea are also one of the global leaders in processing eCommerce mobile payments and have processed over $4 Billion in mobile billing transactions. Their service is leading the way globally for financial grade mobile payment standards that are revolutionizing the mobile billing space.

Joe Lynam, PaymentOne CEO, and Jim Greenwell, BilltoMobile CEO, issued a joint statement: “PaymentOne and BilltoMobile agreed to collaborate to enhance both the merchant and consumer value proposition. Consumers will benefit from a secure and convenient payment solution. Merchants and publishers will enjoy improved payouts and dramatically improved ‘friendly fraud’ mitigation from PaymentOne’s Propensity-to-Pay fraud management system. This collaboration will significantly enhance the world’s largest merchants’ and online publishers’ ability to monetize the rapidly growing consumer demand for virtual goods and services.”

Source: MarketWire

Tagattitude Reiterates Commitment to NSDT Mobile Money in Nigeria

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Mobile payment and security technology company, Tagattitude has reiterated its commitment to mobile money programs in Africa. Mobile payments have skyrocketed, particularly in areas where branch banking is not well developed.

Showcasing the product (called Near Sound Data Transfer or NSDT) at the 2011 Mobile money Remittance summit, at the just concluded 2011 Mobile money Remittance summit, Mr. Femi Akinware, a Tagattitude company director, said the speed at which technology has continued to drive change in the global economy had made mobile payment inevitable in Nigeria, and that Nigerians have no option than to embrace the new mobile payment system that are being offered by modern technologies such as NSDT.

The service was launched for Mobile Payment in June, 2010.

via Vanguard (Nigeria).

Sage Launches New Mobile Payments Product

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Sage Payment Solutions, the payments division for Sage North America, has announced the availability of Sage Mobile Payments. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant mobile payments product comes bundled with a Sage merchant account to allow SMBs to expand their payment options by accepting credit and debit cards on 400+ types of mobile phones and computing devices, across all major wireless carriers. Sage Payment Solutions is offering Sage Mobile Payments for a nominal set-up fee, a monthly fee as low as $10.95, and no incremental mobile processing or transaction fees. The product is also available with an optional, end-to-end encrypted card reader (card swiper).

The solution offers small and midsized businesses (SMBs) the ability to process mobile payments, with no additional transaction fee surcharges, and the system will offer seamless integration to a wide range of business management systems.

“SMBs need to look at total cost of ownership when it comes to selecting a mobile payments solution,” said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions. “Some competing mobile payments offerings add 1 percent plus upwards of 37 cents to the processing fees, which can easily turn into well over $130 in extra fees for every $10,000 in credit card volume. While this pricing is good for individuals that don’t process a lot of credit card transactions, it can be quite costly for businesses using their mobile device to process credit cards on a regular basis.”

Sage Payment Solutions believes that the most cost-effective mobile payments offering for an SMB customer consists of a reasonable monthly fee and no additional transaction fee surcharges. “In the end, we don’t view the mobile device as a profit center,” said Hammermaster. “Mobile payments is an important solution in our suite to help customers expand their sales channels and generate revenues.”

Sage Mobile Payments is available with an optional card reader (card swiper), with end-to-end encryption from the card reader device to the application. “End-to-end encryption for any payment transaction is now a requirement in the business community, and Sage Payment Solutions is committed to meeting that demand,” said Hammermaster.

Sage Mobile Payments is PCI compliant, and adheres to the highest possible standards in the payment industry. All customer data flowing through Sage Mobile Payments is encrypted before it leaves a customer’s cell phone; no personal data is retained on the phone or mobile computing device.

Sage Mobile Payments will soon seamlessly integrate to Sage Exchange, a secure, Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified payments platform that can automatically update a numerous Sage-developed accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), fundraising, medical practice management, and billing and time tracking systems with payments data to help eliminate the cost, hassle, and inaccuracy associated with manual data entry. Sage Exchange also integrates with a number of third-party business management products and services.

The SMB Group, a research firm focused exclusively on researching and analyzing the highly fragmented SMB market, is currently conducting a Small and Medium (SMB) Business Payment Solutions Study. Preliminary data from that study shows that 3 percent of SMBs accept mobile payments today, and suggests that this number will increase to 7 percent in the next 12 months, and 16 percent by the end of 2012.

“A business of virtually any size can benefit from the ability to process mobile payments,” said Sanjeev Aggarwal, founder and partner of The SMB Group. “From larger companies with employees in the field, to micro-businesses exhibiting at trade fairs, all need to process payments and do business on-the-go. Sage Payment Solutions seems to have figured out that mobile payment products are business tools, not gadgets. The company is providing small and midsized businesses with an affordable solution, without charging a premium for using it.”

As announced in October 2010, Sage Payment Solutions has partnered with ROAM Data, an industry leader in mobile commerce solutions, to bring Sage Mobile Payments to market. The product works with Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Motorola’s DROID phones, and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, plus hundreds of other mobile devices. Using Sage Mobile Payments, businesses and organizations can:

  • Quickly and securely process credit and debit card orders, with real-time authorization;
  • Use an optional low-cost, secure card reader;
  • Log cash orders, download reports online, and email receipts to their customers;
  • Rapidly change applications or add features to mobile apps that may benefit them; and
  • * Experience seamless integration with their Sage accounting, ERP, fundraising products, plus other third-party products.
  • Pricing and Availability

Source: Marketwire

Contactless Payments Will Top $320 Billion by 2016, Says Report

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Internet, mobile and contactless payments are expected to continue to grow, and will more than double to over $200 billion by 2016, according to a recent report.

The Advanced Payments Report 2011, sponsored by MasterCard Worldwide, is based on a review of the global payments landscape, surveys of payment industry stakeholder opinion, and discussions with more than 650 industry executives and thought leaders.

The report states that, on a worldwide basis, the greatest growth in payments over the next five years will come in “advanced payments” – online, contactless card and mobile payments. It estimates that the global market size for internet or online payments will continue to grow and is expected to more than double to over $2000 billion by 2016.

But the greatest growth will come in mobile and contactless payments. The global market for mobile payments is expected to reach $680 billion by 2016, with that for contactless payments estimated to exceed $320 billion.

“Payments Cards and Mobile has been reporting on the global growth in Advanced Payments for a number of years now,” says Alex Rolfe, Managing Director, Payments Cards and Mobile. “This report validates the continuing emergence and success of new market entrants and the changing nature of the payments infrastructure.”

Of all the drivers for success, “executive commitment is perhaps the most powerful driver for pushing out a new payment product,” the report says. It adds that while many organisations undertake limited, partially funded and often half-hearted trials of new payment products, the really important element missing in many such initiatives is executive commitment and the allocation of the right levels of investment.

The stakeholder opinion survey identifies payment cards as the most important payment method for making payments online but recognises the need to allay customer concerns of potential security risks. For contactless payments, the report notes that lack of contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminal infrastructure is the most critical challenge to growth in payment volumes.

On mobile payments, the survey points to the general lack of cooperation between the banks and the mobile network operators (MNO) as a continuing issue that needs to be addressed. It also notes that both banks and MNOs must address the needs of consumers as well as merchants and design suitable incentives where necessary.

Samee Zafar, Director at Edgar Dunn & Company (EDC), producer of the report, said “Robust and secure mobile payment technologies are widely available. These can leverage existing payments infrastructure as far as possible thereby saving payment processing costs. What is now required is for payment services providers to develop advanced payment products that can be effective and successful in the marketplace.”

Source: PR Log