Mobile Payment Magazine

Isis Selects Gemalto for NFC and Mobile Payment Services

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GemaltoGemalto has been selected by Isis to secure its mobile commerce platform through Gemalto’s Allynis Trusted Service Manager (TSM) solution. Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, will provide consumers and merchants with an open and secure mobile commerce platform that will revolutionize how consumers shop, pay and save. Gemalto is a leading digital security company.

“We selected Gemalto for their long-standing relationships with financial institutions and mobile operators, which includes experience in securely provisioning services over the air and issuing sensitive financial information to the consumer,” said Ryan Hughes, Chief Marketing Officer of Isis. “Gemalto’s dedication to security is unmatched in the industry and will provide the Isis Mobile Commerce Platform with the necessary infrastructure to ensure consumer and merchant confidence in the Isis Mobile Wallet.”

Isis will enable consumers to enjoy the speed, security and convenience of mobile contactless payment using NFC technology at retail outlets such as restaurants, movie theaters and drug stores. Consumers will be able to securely pay, present loyalty cards, and redeem coupons all with a tap of their phones.

“Gemalto is thrilled to support Isis in delivering the speed, security and convenience of mobile contactless payment,” added Sebastien Cano, Senior Vice-President, Gemalto North America. “Using our extensive experience with worldwide commercial deployments Gemalto has designed a solution for Isis to support mobile payment and a host of NFC services like digital couponing and loyalty programs, access control and mass transit.”

Gemalto provides personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, e-healthcare and e-government servicesthrough its secure software, a wide range of secure personal devices, and managed services to wireless operators, banks, enterprises and government agencies.

Gemalto also provides products for electronic passports and identity cards, two-factor authentication devices for online protection, smart credit/debit and contactless payment cards, as well as subscriber identification modules (SIM) and universal integrated circuit cards (UICC) in mobile phones. In the emerging machine-to-machine applications Gemalto supplies wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM), as well as  server platforms, consulting, training, and managed services.

The Isis consortium is a  joint venture is between AT&T Mobility LLC, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless and is based in New York City. The venture is chartered with building ISIS, a national mobile commerce platform that  will be available to all merchants, banks and mobile carriers.

Source: Gemalto

Samsung’s New NFC Chip Enables Secure Mobile Payment by Enhancing NFC with Security Features

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today its new system-in-package (SIP) near field communications (NFC) chip, the SENHRN1. The new Secu-NFC chip combines a NFC controller and a secure element storing personal information and security keys with advanced encryption technologies, a prerequisite for reliable and efficient mobile payment on NFC-enabled mobile devices. Samsung´s new NFC solution will be on display at CARTES 2011 from November 15th through 17th at the Samsung booth # 3 C 035 in hall 3 at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center. [Read more…]

Google Wallet and the New Payment Ecosystem

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When the Google Wallet launched on September 20, 2011, the first test of a remarkable new financial ecosystem began. But despite the apparent success of traditional mobile payments products like M-PESA in Kenya and South Africa, Google and rival Isis have decided to rewrite the business model – and for good reason. Actually, four good reasons:

  1. Significant revenue is available from the advertising, retention and rewards programs, leaving the usual payments fees to the payments companies.
  2. The payments ecosystem cannot afford new categories. The-existing players are companies with considerable resources and the willingness to use their resources thwarting a new category of entrants.
  3. Regulatory changes are already pressuring known revenue streams, increasing the motivation for existing players in the payments ecosystem to protect position.
  4. Cash is resilient to other tender types in developed worlds, not so in developing countries.

As a result, both Isis and the Google Wallet products are creating a strategy which lets the payment ecosystem continue to charge and earn as much as possible from the payments business. The new revenue these companies seek to earn comes from two vulnerable industries: advertising and loyalty. Google, with its extreme interest in data collection and distribution, will likely seek new revenue from that channel also.

The strategies of these two companies, which are likely to be eventually joined by Apple and Amazon in their approach, has substantially slowed mobile commerce development in the rest of the developed world.

Even Japan, which has used an NFC-like technology for most of the last decade, is highly interested in understanding the results of the American experiments before committing to a long-term strategy. And they are not in a hurry. The only short-range communication standard with approval from the International Standards Organization is ISO/IEC 14443, known simply as Near- Field Communications or NFC.

To use either the Google Wallet or Isis product as they are currently understood, the customer will either need a phone with an NFC chip built in (which is in exactly one model out of hundreds of models of mobile phones in the United States—The Samsung Nexus S), and merchants will need to invest in NFC readers at their cash registers (also known as POS terminals).

Whether the US experiments succeed or fail, one thing is certain—the unenhanced peer-to-peer payments systems like M-PESA have no chance to reach the mainstream of the US or any developed country. The environment is simply too hostile from entrenched payments incumbents, and from feature-rich new services. A different breed of service that includes advertising and rewards programs as well as data services will vastly overshadow stand-alone mobile payments products. These new services are called “mobile commerce.”

The overriding conclusion is that the winning mobile commerce business model, inclusive of the mobile commerce players that will prevail in the long term, may be decided months or years before mobile commerce begins to penetrate the general transaction volume in developed markets.

More information: Google Wallet and the New Payment Ecosystem White Paper.

Source: Luciano Group

Analyst Cites eBay as Strong Investment Opportunity in Mobile Payments

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eBay provides one of the best investment opportunities to take advantage of the growth of mobile payments, according to Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

“We believe PayPal will capitalize on its superior position in mobile payments extending its 25 percent to 30 percent growth, turning into eBay’s largest business by 2014 and leading to significant multiple expansion,” he said.
[Read more…]

Pyramid Research Offers Research Service Covering Best Practices in Mobile Payments

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Pyramid Research  identifies Mobile Payment opportunities with the Mobile Commerce Landscape Insight Pack , a new research service that combines Pyramid’s extensive database resources with high-level expert analysis.

The Mobile Commerce Landscape Insight Pack offers analysis on current trends and best practices in mobile payments in emerging and developed markets. The Mobile Commerce Landscape Insight Pack includes up-to-the-minute data and market forecasts, an in-depth research report and a live session with a senior Pyramid analyst, giving you quick and direct insight into key trends.

The service includes:

  • A Research Report delivered in PDF format
  • A Forecast Excel file containing all the data underlying the report
  • An Insight Session via telephone to be scheduled at your convenience

More information: Pyramid Research

Merchants – How to Accept Google Wallet

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If you’re a small or medium-sized business, if you can’t already accept contactless payments today, you’ll need to upgrade your system, which is likely out of date with the latest technologies.

First data offers updated systems so you’ll be able to accept Google Wallet, other contactless payments, and of course traditional payment forms, with a single package.

If you already accept contactless payments, you’re ready for Google Wallet. [Read more…]

Google Wallet is Now Available!

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Google has announced the availability of Google Wallet for the Sprint Nexus S 4G:

“Google Wallet has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem. It will eventually hold many if not all of the cards you keep in your leather wallet today.”

“And because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will be able to do more than a regular wallet ever could, like storing thousands of payment cards and Google Offers but without the bulk. Eventually your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via NFC”

More information: Google Wallet.

Visa Europe Launches Mobile Person-to-Person Payments

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Visa Europe today announced the launch of Visa Mobile Person-to-Person payments for making payments via mobile phone.

Announced this morning by Visa Europe Chief Executive Peter Ayliffe in his keynote speech at the EFMA conference in Paris, the new services give Visa Europe’s member banks the tools to respond to growing consumer demand for fast, secure, convenient and innovative ways to make and manage payments using their mobile phones.

“The way we pay is changing, driven by the rapid uptake of new technologies and growing consumer demand for more flexible payments. Today’s announcement is the first in a series of new products and services that Visa Europe will be launching in the coming months to reflect the fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. We are already seeing early adoption of mobile payments, and in the coming months we will see the arrival of mainstream NFC technologies, advanced loyalty and e-commerce services, and ultimately, the launch of a new digital wallet,” said Ayliff.

Visa Mobile Person-to-Person payments allow registered users to transfer funds to any Visa cardholder in Europe from their mobile phone, backed by all the security and expertise of Visa Europe’s industry-leading processing systems. The app makes it easy to send money to an address book contact, to a mobile phone number, or to a specific Visa card number – whether or not the recipient is registered with the service.

At launch Visa Mobile P2P payments will be available through an English-language Android application and will support transfers in a single currency for Visa and V PAY cardholders within Europe. Support for other mobile Operating Systems, multiple currencies and payments to and within non-European countries will be added over following months.

Visa Mobile Person-to-Person Payments was developed by Visa Europe in partnership with Monitise, the first of many services that will be made available through the partnership announced in early 2011.

 

Why Google Wallet Will Own the Mobile Payment Space

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Almost four months after Google first revealed its new mobile payments application, Google Wallet, the app is finally rolling out to the masses this week. Unfortunately, only a few smartphones – including the Samsung (SEO: 005930) Nexus S and Nexus S 4G – currently have the revolutionary chip built in. That’s why competitor services like PayPal, Square and the ISIS platform from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are hoping to swoop in and corner the mobile payment market. And many experts are predicting that they could do just that. But they’re dead wrong!

I’m not convinced that any of these services can compare to what the Google Wallet platform has to offer. And here are three reasons why…
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Regulatory Uncertainty Casts Doubts On Legal Status of Mobile Payment Services

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The emergence of new technology that enables consumers to pay for things with their smartphones has exposed shortcomings in the laws governing financial transactions. As it stands now, no one law or government authority oversees the burgeoning field of mobile commerce. At the same time, regulators have yet to explain what, how, and to whom existing laws may apply.

The federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, for instance, governs the use of personal information maintained by financial institutions. The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, along with its 2003 amended version, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, establishes rules for access to, and dissemination of, consumer reports. Regulation E, first issued by the Federal Reserve Board in 1979 under the authority of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, provides protection for electronic fund transfers to and from a consumer’s bank account.
[Read more…]