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.
iPhone and iPad Will be Equiped with NFC for Mobile Payments, Says Consultant
Apple Inc. plans to introduce services that would let customers use its iPhone and iPad computer to make purchases, said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group.
The services are based on “Near-Field Communication,” a technology that can beam and receive information at a distance of up to 4 inches, due to be embedded in the next iteration of the iPhone for AT&T Inc. and the iPad 2, Doherty said. Both products are likely to be introduced this year, he said, citing engineers who are working on hardware for the Apple project.
via Bloomberg.
Square Inc. Signing Up 30,000+ New Accounts Per Month
Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles Times interviewed Square COO Keith Rabois about Square’s latest round of funding, which according to some sources puts the company valuation at over $240 million. According to Rabois, the company has “been signing up 30,000 to 40,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.” Not bad!
Square provides a new platform to accept debit and credit cards on a mobile devices. The Square product is a small (square) piece of hardware that attaches to mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, laptop). It’s basically a small card reader that allows merchants to swipe a customer’s credit card and complete a mobile transaction from virtually anywhere.
Before the company launched, Square Inc. raised $10 million, with a valuation of $40 million. The lead investor of the $10 million round was Khosla Ventures.
At first blush the current $240 million valuation may seem rich for an enterprise that launched just over a year ago, but given that one of the company’s co-founders is Jack Dorsey, best known as the creator of Twitter, a blockbuster success is not out of the question.
In the Los Angeles Times blog post, Guynn asks: “How do you increase awareness of Square?”
According to Dorsey, “Historically the way people have found out about Square is that they pay a merchant at the farmers market with it and decide they want to get it themselves or they read about it on Twitter or in media coverage. But we have not engaged in traditional marketing campaigns. We are going to invest in marketing. You will see that go live in January. It’s a big task to ensure that the 180 million people who carry plastic in their wallets know about Square.How has adoption of Square grown since October, when you launched to the public?We have been signing up 30,000 to 50,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.” (via: Lost Angeles Times)
Bank of America Expands Mobile Banking Trial
B of A plans to expand a mobile payments trial it is conducting in New York to San Francisco and Atlanta this quarter, according to Michael Upton, the emerging channels capabilities executive at the Charlotte, N.C., company.
“We have liked what we learned,” Upton said of the trial in an interview on Monday. “It does … give us some of the market differentiation in terms of consumer adoption, behavior, preferences [and] perceptions by moving to some of the other markets.”
Bank of America also plans to make the system commercially available to customers by the end of the year, Upton said.
via American Banker
Florida Turnpike Enterprise Partners with Epay for Payment Solution
epay, a prepaid and payments processor in the U.S., has announced a partnership with Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). The company says that now SunPass customers can now reload their accounts using cash at more than 2,000 epay locations statewide. Customers can also check their SunPass account balance. SunPass is Florida’s electronic prepaid toll program, and is accepted on all toll roads and nearly all bridges in the Sunshine State.
“Through our partnership with epay we have nearly tripled the number of SunPass cash replenishment locations from 1,161 to more than 3,100 locations statewide, including more than 450 locations in Miami-Dade,” said FTE Deputy Executive Director Jennifer Olson. “It is important that we provide as many places as we can for our customers to reload their SunPass accounts, especially as we get close to February, when we will implement all-electronic no cash tolling on the Turnpike Extension in Miami-Dade County.”
Reloading an existing SunPass account with epay is easy. Customers just give their SunPass transponder number to the cashier at any participating retailer, along with the amount of money they want to add to the SunPass account plus a $1.50 convenience fee per transaction. Customers then get back a receipt showing the amount added to the SunPass account. Checking SunPass account balances works the same way, except there is no convenience fee.
The new locations offering SunPass cash-reloading services include gas stations, convenience stores, check-cashing stores, wireless dealers, bodegas and more. The locations generally have on their door or window a green and yellow sign with the SunPass logo, clearly advertising to the customer the availability of the service. Customers can go to the SunPass website to find a reload location nearby. It is as simple as entering a ZIP code and choosing a preferred location. Customers can click on a location to view a map and get directions. Many new locations will be added in the near future, for added convenience.
FTE is working with its current vendors, including epay, to provide additional cash-based services to its SunPass customers in the coming months.
“epay is extremely pleased to be partnering with FTE to offer a simple payment method to SunPass cash customers through our innovative technology platform,” said Eric Mettemeyer, Managing Director of epay Americas/APAC. “When customers reload their SunPass account at an epay location, they also have access to other cash-based products, such as prepaid wireless top-ups, bill payments and Internet credits.”
In June 2010, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise became the first toll agency in the U.S. to provide its customers a program to replenish their transponders with cash at retail locations. FTE is a leader in transportation and continually strives to provide its customers value in the form of safety, service and convenience.
Source: Business Wire
Starbucks Mobile M-Payment May Be Tipping Point for Mobile Payments
Drew Sievers believes Starbucks’ rollout of an app-based mobile payments system to more than 7,500 locations nationwide could represent a tipping point toward mainstream acceptance of the phone as a means to make purchases. And, ultimately, that adoption could pave the way for future advances in mobile and Near Field Communications payments.
Sievers, the co-founder and CEO of mFoundry, the mobile banking and payments solutions provider behind the app, says that Starbucks saw the ability for its customers to make payments through their mobile phone as a game changer. “They wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t believe it wasn’t valuable to them,” he adds.
Japan’s Softbank Mobile Selects Gemalto for Mobile Contactless Payment Trial
Gemalto, a leading digital security company, has been selected by Softbank Mobile for the latest mobile contactless payment trial in Japan. Softbank Mobile is a leading mobile operator in Japan with 21 million subscribers. The program is the first in Asia to enable secure mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) transactions from a choice of different credit card accounts. The pilot is expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2011.
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless technology that enables the communication between devices over a distance of less than 10 cm. The key benefits of NFC are compatibility with the existing contactless infrastructure and simplicity, as NFC is characterized by a natural and intuitive “just touch” movement.
“Gemalto’s end-to-end solution brings the simplicity and convenience of NFC, while ensuring interoperability across business partners in Japan and beyond.”
Softbank Mobile customers will be able to use their mobile phones for contactless payments in convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and theaters. The program also offers users the option to perform NFC transactions from two credit card issuers – Orient Corporation, the largest service provider of MasterCard PayPass in Japan, and Credit Saison, another Japanese leading financial institution. This is made possible by embedding multiple MasterCard PayPass applications in the secure UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card). UICC is the smart card used to authenticate the subscriber for GSM and UMTS/3G networks. Now in the pipeline for LTE, the UICC brings a host of fundamental features, tried and tested within GSM and now perfected for LTE.
For this program, Gemalto will provide a turnkey NFC solution comprised of its Allynis Trusted Services Management operated services, UICC cards and N-Flex devices. Gemalto’s trusted services allow for the secure deployment and management of contactless mobile payment. The N-Flex enables users to turn a conventional handset into an NFC-enabled mobile phone, without any change to the device.
“Gemalto’s end-to-end solution brings the simplicity and convenience of NFC, while ensuring interoperability across business partners in Japan and beyond,” commented Mr. Naoki Kinoshita, General Manager, SOFTBANK MOBILE. “Gemalto’s expertise in secure operated services will enable SOFTBANK MOBILE to focus on providing a broader range of value added services to our customers.”
“Japan is the most progressive country in the world when it comes to using the mobile phone for contactless services and Gemalto is delighted to support Softbank Mobile in this new project,” added Tan Teck-Lee, President, Gemalto Asia. “The advent of NFC in Japan will enable to massively deploy mobile contactless services in payments and other domains like transit, loyalty programs or couponing.”
Source: Business Wire
Veracity Payment Solutions Purchases WorldNet Payment Gateway Software
Veracity Payment Solutions today announced the signing of an unconditional license agreement with WorldNet, the Dublin-based provider of secure online payment services to domestic and international eCommerce and mCommerce clients. Under the license agreement WorldNet will provide source code and collaborative development support for customization of the WorldNet Online Payment Processing platform for the U.S. market.
“We are pleased to add this state of the art gateway platform to our ever increasing portfolio of technology solutions”
“Veracity will be able to compete at the highest level of eCommerce and mCommerce processing with the addition of our new multi-currency gateway product,” states Joseph Cohane, Chief Executive Officer with Veracity Payment Solutions. “Veracity is the first U.S. acquirer to offer this proven gateway solution to merchants in North America. The ability to own our own customized version of the software supported by the talented professionals of both organizations brings Veracity’s product offering to an exciting new level,” said Cohane.
WorldNet Chief Executive, Will Byrne commented, “We are delighted to announce our agreement with Veracity Payment Solutions as it represents a very significant milestone in the expansion of our business to new markets and jurisdictions beyond our current European base.”
John Clarke, Head of Product Innovation at WorldNet commented that “the WorldNet solution supports the next generation of online Payment Gateway requirements, which we refer to as Payment Gateway 2.0. This is a multi channel solution, which addresses both eCommerce and mCommerce requirements in a seamless manner. Add to this the ability to customize the solution and we dramatically reduce the time for our partners to get to market with a full branded offering.”
“We are pleased to add this state of the art gateway platform to our ever increasing portfolio of technology solutions,” commented Grant Putre, Chief Information Officer with Veracity Payment Solutions. “This alliance is another important step in our strategy to deliver versatile web-based solutions such as multi-currency processing and dynamic currency conversion to our customers, while providing a rich base of custom solutions that are secure, cost-effective and easy for customers to manage. We look forward to working with WorldNet’s talented developers to deliver innovative solutions to our customers,” said Putre.
The unique agreement with WorldNet means Veracity can tailor its payment-processing platform to expand in the small to medium sized business sector with customized low-cost solutions. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Source: Business Wire
Usablenet Integrates With PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout for Mobile Website Payments
Usablenet has announced integration with PayPal’s mobile payments product, Mobile Express Checkout, to enhance payment offerings on clients’ mobile websites. Usablenet can now extend PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout to mobile commerce websites and other supported solutions, such as mobile applications, tablets, Facebook & other social media, and in-store kiosks. Usablenet works with Fortune 500 companies to extend their websites to any customer, via Mobile, Facebook shops, Apps, Kiosks and Assistive versions.
With more than 90 million active users worldwide, PayPal’s total payment volume represents 16.5% of U.S. e-commerce and 15% of global e-commerce. In Q3 2010, PayPal reported a 26% increase in online payment volume growth compared with Q3 2009, a portion of which was attributed to mobile transactions. Over the 2010 holiday shopping season (from November 15 – December 15, 2010) PayPal experienced a 300% increase in mobile payments volume and closed out 2010 with $750 million in mobile payment volume; this is 50% more than the $500 million PayPal projected earlier in the year.
Founded in 2000, Usablenet has created a technology platform that extends all features, functionality, and content contained on clients’ websites (or other available sources) to their customers wherever they are — including mobile phones, mobile applications, tablets, Facebook and other social media, and in-store kiosks. Usablenet is the mobile partner for nearly 200 Fortune 1000 companies including Amtrak, American Airlines, ASOS.com, Estée Lauder, FedEx, Hilton, JCPenney, JetBlue, and Marks & Spencer, among others.
“Given our significantly shared client base with PayPal, we are thrilled to be able to extend PayPal to mobile and to our other solutions,” said Usablenet President Nick Taylor. “Imagine the power of extending PayPal not only to consumers on mobile phones, but also to those shopping at an in-store kiosk powered by Usablenet or on Facebook where we provide the shopping experience.”
“Usablenet empowers top e-commerce merchants throughout the world,” said Bill Zielke, PayPal’s Senior Director of Merchant Services. “By integrating PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout with Usablenet’s offerings, businesses can enable consumers to speed through checkout securely using their mobile phones.”
Source: MarketWire
Starbucks Rolls Out Mobile Payment Program Throughout U.S.
After a trial period at select stores, Starbucks has launched its mobile payment program in approximately 6,800 company-operated stores and more than 1,000 Starbucks in U.S. Target store locations, allowing customers to pay for in-store purchases with select smartphones. [Read more…]
HID Global to Add Mobile Payment Stickers to Its Contactless Payment Options
HID Global is adding a mobile sticker format to its family of contactless payment and identification cards and is aiming at the mobile phone market as well and NFC payment services, which can be accessed by affixing the sticker to a handset.
The stickers are only likely to act as bridge to contactless mobile payments and Near Field Communication services because gradually in-built secure chips will corner the market as more and more customers take up secure SIM-enabled smartphones. The adhesive-backed sticker is a useful bridge in the meantime, however, and HID Global’s contains an internal ferrite layer that shields electronics from interference even when attached to items containing metal.
via RFPConnect.
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