Opinion Articles
For a couple of years I wrote a monthly "Opinion" article on banking and payment issues for Banking Automation Bulletin, published by Retail Banking Research (RBR). These articles are posted below. They are also posted (with extensive comments) on the Banking Automation group site within Linked-In.I now write Opinion articles on an occasional basis and post them here below. These more recent articles may or may not be published in RBR's Banking Automation Bulletin. |
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Apple Pay takes off
Now that the dust has settled after its launch, reliable evidence is emerging that Apple Pay is a success. Collin Consulting partner Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) has launched Apple Pay Tracker, a longitudinal study that will monitor consumer adoption and usage of the mobile wallet throughout 2015 (click here for the ACG press release).
Breaking up is hard to do – Part 1
They say we’re more likely to get divorced than change our bank but I’m planning to do just that.
What exactly is Bitcoin and should we care?
What to make of Bitcoin, the digital currency which has been all over the news recently, and should we take it seriously?
Dynamic Currency Conversion
On a recent skiing holiday I took the opportunity to research the murky subject of Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) applied to card payments abroad.
Display Cards and Mobile Wallets
Since I first wrote about Display Cards in this column in June 2011, the technology has been enthusiastically embraced by banks and their customers all over the world.
EMV Chip in the US – the Case for Offline PIN
A year ago in this column I argued that it would be unwise for the US to adopt an EMV migration strategy of deploying only “chip and signature” rather than also allowing the option of “chip and PIN”. My impression one year later is that most in the industry now accept this argument.
Mobile Terminals
There has recently been a flurry of announcements about “mobile terminals” – adapting a mobile phone so that it can accept card payments. This has always struck me as a much more realistic proposition within the ill-defined “mobile payments” space than the over-hyped “mobile NFC” idea.
E-Commerce Payments – “Push” versus “Pull”
Last month EBA Clearing announced that it had signed up 11 banks to participate in a live launch of MyBank, a new pan-European Online Banking ePayments (OBeP) service. This could be a highly significant development in the long term.
Leave the Payments Council Alone
My title for this month’s article might have been entitled “Bashing Bankers, Part 4 – Government”. It concerns what is, in my opinion, a particularly ill-considered and unjustified attack by the government on the UK payments industry as a whole and in particular the Payments Council.
Bashing Bankers, Part 3 - Regulators
In 2009, Andrew Haldane, Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, published a paper entitled “Rethinking the Financial Network” which, in my opinion, remains the most coherent interpretation of the current financial crisis.
Bashing Bankers, Part 1 - RBS
These days it seems that not a week goes by without a new banking scandal, accompanied by an orgy of “banker bashing” by the media, politicians, and the public at large. As I write the focus is on Libor-fixing at Barclays, but before that story broke, we were all outraged by the systems meltdown at RBS. Is this outrage justified? My view is that these two very different cases illustrate that the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Bashing Bankers, Part 2 - Barclays
Last month I argued that indiscriminate “banker bashing” ignores the fact that banking is a large, complex industry and that while some parts (for example, much of investment banking) have been revealed in recent years to be clearly dysfunctional and deserving of criticism, other parts (for example most of retail transaction processing) have performed quite well.
Mobile NFC RIP?
Regular readers will know I just don’t “get” mobile NFC. I’m talking here specifically about using a mobile phone for face-to-face payments at a physical POS via a contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) interface.
Digital wallets – making sense of the metaphor
In an interesting, and I believe important development last month, both Visa and MasterCard announced digital wallet initiatives. Both Visa’s V.Me and MasterCard’s PayPass Wallet allow consumers to store electronic details of several cards (not just Visa or MasterCard) as well as billing and delivery addresses, in order to make “one-click” online purchases via PC or mobile phone, or at the physical POS via NFC.
ATMIA launches US EMV migration committee
Last month I participated via conference call in the inaugural meeting of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) US EMV Migration Committee. This was a lively and productive meeting at which a number of important issues were raised. Chief amongst these was the MasterCard EMV liability shift for inter-regional Maestro ATM transactions.
Telephone banking fraud
In the current climate of indiscriminate banker bashing it is nice to see that one small part of the industry – UK payments – seems to be doing a good job. The UK Cards Association has reported that in 2011 payment card fraud dropped 7% to £341 million, a 10 year low, while online banking fraud dropped 24% to £36 million, despite an 80% increase in phishing attacks.
Barclays Pingit
Sooner than I expected (see January Bulletin 296) the first UK bank has launched an attractive looking payments service on top of Faster Payments.
Barclays Pingit ushers in mobile-to-mobile payments
Sooner than I expected (see January Bulletin 296) the first UK bank has launched an attractive looking payments service on top of Faster Payments.
EMV Migration in the US – an Update
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to interview several senior US bankers and retailers about migration to EMV chip in the States. The feedback has been very interesting but also rather disturbing.
Predictions for 2012 – a contrarian view
January is traditionally a time for revisiting the stories of the year just past and speculating about the year ahead. So, sticking my neck out, and extrapolating from previous Bulletin Opinion articles, here’s my predictions for 2012:
E-Purse - time for a comeback
The concept of an “e-purse” or “stored value card” was always a natural for smartcards. A pre-paid payment vehicle which could be issued to anyone, with electronic money in effect stored securely on
Interchange fees and the law of unintended consequences
At the heart of the card payments industry is the “four party model”, which, simply stated, works as follows. An acquiring bank charges the merchant that accepts a card payment a “merchant service
Online banking security – no easy answers
Two events prompted me this month to look again at online banking security: the first a survey by Which? magazine of UK banks’ security approaches; the second the arrival of my new HSBC Secure Key
Visa kick starts EMV chip migration in the US
Visa’s announcement last month of measures to encourage US migration to EMV chip is hugely significant, not just for the US, but for the card payments industry worldwide.
Extending EMV chip beyond banking and payments
The global EMV chip infrastructure represents an immensely valuable resource for banks which, with a little imagination, they could use to grow profitable new businesses outside the payments industry.
Happy Birthday? The strange case of Faster Payments
According to a Payments Council press release on May 27 celebrating the third birthday of Faster Payments, 82% of all online and telephone banking payments and 64% of standing orders are now processed through the service, amounting to 1.6 million payments per day, to a value of £600 million, a doubling of volumes in the last year.
Chip and PIN Online
It’s easy to become blasé about internet shopping, but e-commerce statistics continue to astound. According to IMRG, global online sales volumes in 2010 amounted to €591 billion, an annual growth rate of 25%. Even in the relatively mature UK market, e-commerce volumes grew a very healthy 18% to €70 billion. Payments Council statistics paint a similar picture: in 2008, e-commerce accounted for 8% of all debit card and 20% of credit card spending in the UK.
Display Cards – coming soon to a bank near you
A phenomenon often underestimated by trend-watchers is how innovations can extend the lifespan of an established technology. Over the past 60 years the functionality and security of the ubiquitous plastic payment card has been enhanced by first embossing, then magnetic stripes, then chip technology. “Display Cards” may well be the next significant leap forward in this evolution.
Mobile NFC Payments – Reality or Hype?
The industry’s enthusiasm for mobile NFC payments has reached fever pitch. Am I alone in remaining sceptical?
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