The four major U.S. payment card networks, Visa (VS), MasterCard (MC), American Express (AX) and Discover (DS), produced a 3.2% year-on-year (Y/Y) gain in Spending Per Card (SPC) during the first quarter of 2014 (Q1/14), according to CardData.
Citi launched its Mobile Snapshot, allowing customers to view deposit and credit card balances and recent transactions without having to log into their accounts. This follows a successful beta test conducted with customers over the past three months. Citi banking and credit card customers who choose to enroll in Citi Mobile Snapshot will have instant access to their basic account information. The new feature will help enrolled banking and credit card customers monitor their accounts on-the-go by displaying balances and the 15 most recent transactions without requiring a log-in every time. The introduction of Citi Mobile Snapshot feature is part of the complete redesign of the Citi Mobile app launched earlier this year. The new app, enabled for iPhone® and Android™ devices, provides U.S. banking and credit card customers with new and enhanced mobile account management capabilities.
mPOS (mobile point of sale) in Europe will take off dramatically in 2014, driven by changing perceptions towards card acceptance usage by small businesses (SMEs) and micro-merchants. The number of European merchants signing up for Chip and PIN mPOS increased by more than 60% in the last quarter of 2013.
Logic PD engineers and designers addressed this real world challenge and uncovered new insights on how the Internet of Things (IoT) technology can help improve people’s lives during the Logic PD ACME-thon held in late April. The solution, a multi-modal security platform for card purchases, uses NFC authentication combined with camera imaging to protect users.…
ULUL is pleased to announce the qualification by GlobalPlatform of two new Collis Compliance Test Suites: GlobalPlatform SE Access Control Card and GlobalPlatform SE Configuration, which further enhances UL’s compliance test suite portfolio. The Collis Compliance Test Suite for GlobalPlatform Secure Element (SE) Configuration implements the official test plan developed for the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program. The test suite ensures the compliance of a Secure Element that implements the GlobalPlatform Card Secure Element Configuration specification which is based on GlobalPlatform Card version 2.2.1 technology. The Collis Compliance Test Suite for GlobalPlatform Secure Element (SE) Access Control Card Configuration implements the official test plan developed for the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program. The test suite ensures the compliance of an ARA-M applet on a Secure Element that implements the GlobalPlatform Access Control specification.
Javelin Strategy & Research released 2014 Retail Point of Sale Payment Forecast: The Mobile Payment Square-Effect and Prepaid Card Popularity Drive Cash Down by 10% report which evaluates the forecast changes in the retail POS market, tracking payments mix data from 2012 through the forecast year of 2019. Cash and paper checks dominated consumers’ wallets, with consumers using cash for smaller dollar-value transactions and selecting checks for big-ticket items. This trend has taken a dramatic turn, as consumers increasingly abandoned their traditional paper-based payments for card payments. From 2012 to 2013, cash dropped by 10% of volume of transactions, a total of $86B and is forecasted to drop further over the next six years. Cash is still the most commonly used payment option for in-store purchases, with 65% of all consumers using cash to make a purchase in the past seven days. The report details Javelin’s forecasts for total retail POS payments volume and analyzes share and transaction growth at the POS for credit cards, debit cards, cash, paper checks, prepaid cards, gift cards, and mobile proximity payments.
CashStar announced that it will join leading specialty retailer Aéropostale to help Card Not Present (CNP) Expo attendees learn about, and successfully navigate, the fastest growing trend in prepaid: the shift to digital and mobile. The CNP Expo provides a meeting place for merchants, banks, processors, anti-fraud software providers, legal experts, alternative payment providers, card networks, and others to learn how to leverage CNP payments in an increasingly multi-channel retail sales environment. CashStar Chief Risk Officer Pete Kledaras will be joined by David Libenson, vice president of financial operations at Aéropostale, and Jim Shanahan, CEO of Prepaidian. The fastest growing trend in prepaid cards is their transition from physical cards to digital and mobile currencies and marketing them for omni-channel use. Industry data shows the under-banked, teens and, increasingly, affluent consumers who don’t want the security risks associated with using a credit card, began using both open- and closed-loop prepaid cards online and on-the-go via smartphones in a big way this past holiday season.
ParTech announced that Fogo de Chão recently installed PAR POS terminals. Fogo de Chão (fo-go-de’e-shoun) is an authentic Brazilian Steakhouse with 24 locations in the U.S. and 9 locations in Brazil. Fogo de Chão has selected the PAR EverServ(R) 7000 POS hardware family as the standard POS for all new store openings and replacements or upgrades at existing stores in the U.S. Fogo de Chão initially deployed the EverServ 7000 terminals for its new flagship restaurant in New York, which opened on December 19, 2013. EverServ 7200 terminals are used at the server stations and EverServ 7700 Low Profile terminals are used at the hostess station for seating guests and taking reservations.
InComm in conjunction with Peoples Trust launched a prepaid card to be used in the suretap wallet from Rogers that can be topped up with funds for mobile payments. Nearly 20% of all “face-to-face” MasterCard transactions are processed as a PayPass transaction.Mobile payments are all about convenience and speed. For the consumer, that means no cash or cards are required. The Rogers Prepaid MasterCard can be reloaded any time, at the consumer’s convenience, or via auto top-up. Paying for a purchase at a merchant location is faster than any physical card transaction and only requires tapping on a point-of-sale terminal. Up-to-date balance information is available immediately after each purchase. The card is issued through the suretap wallet and can be activated within minutes. The contactless mobile payments technology behind the prepaid card is based on global standards and proven NFC technology, which is fast, safe and secure.
GlobalPlatform announced the launch of a Security Task Force, which will define the association’s security philosophy and tailor GlobalPlatform’s Specification offerings for the security ecosystem. The task force has been created in response to the increasing number of secure and trusted services that are being deployed on devices such as smartphones that contain often under-utilized secure chip technology, but need to be protected. The group’s immediate priorities are to develop white papers to communicate GlobalPlatform’s role in the security ecosystem and to host GlobalPlatform security workshops with industry representatives to explore the management of secure and non-secure applications on a mobile device. In order to achieve its goals, the group will also facilitate discussions regarding security requirements for devices incorporating secure chip technology and actively contribute to industry efforts to streamline security certification. The group is currently made up of 42 GlobalPlatform Member companies.