Mobile Payment Magazine

Consumers and Mobile Financial Services – Free Report

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.

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

February 10, 2011 by Mobile Payment Magazine

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

Visa “Tap to Phone” Adoption Grows Rapidly

Today, Visa announced that Tap to Phone has experienced a 200% increase over the past year.

Is Your Business PCI Compliant?

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.

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.

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 […]