Cell Phones and a Cashless Society

Singapore-based Cassis Opens Up for Business in the Americas, Sees NFC-enabled Mobile Banking Opportunities in Canada and the U.S.

April 13, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - Singapore-based trusted service management (TSM) specialist Cassis International has opened an office in New York, giving it a foothold in the American market for the first time.

The newly formed Cassis Americas is headed by Allen Merrill, previously an executive at MasterCard Worldwide and a former partner at McKinsey & Company. A regional security centre and data hosting capability is also being established to serve customers based in the region.

Cassis has been keeping a close eye on the American market for several years, Merrill told NFC World.

"We decided in previous years not to enter the Americas market," he explained, but the situation is now beginning to change. Our conclusion this year, says Merrill, was that "if we wait 12 to 18 months, it will be too late. When it starts, it will accelerate fast."

"We see enough evidence of activity, proactiveness and initiative-taking in Canada and the US on the part of telcos and banks," Merrill added. "The market is starting to move."

Cassis has been in business since 2002 and has been involved in many of Asia's largest NFC projects. Its MobileMatrix TSM solution is offered to mobile network operators, banks and others — either on a licensing basis or as a managed service solution where Cassis takes responsibility for providing over-the-air (OTA) provisioning, for managing multiple applications held within a secure element and for providing a comprehensive customer service to end users.

Cassis is also expanding its operations in Europe. The company recently recruited Jean-Philippe Betoin, previously of Inside Contactless and Gemalto, to head Cassis Europe, where customers include BKM in Turkey, Orange Business Services in France and Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy.

"Cassis has achieved unrivalled commercial experience and technical expertise in providing trusted services by working with banks, mobile operators, transit companies and other service providers on a significant number of commercial mobile NFC projects throughout Asia/Pacific and across the globe," says TH Tan, co-founder and chairman of Cassis International. "These new steps in global expansion build on our success and deep cross-industry expertise for the next phase of global growth."

Banks Get Serious About NFC-enabled Mobile Phone Banking

March 15, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - Interest in near field communication is gathering pace in the financial services sector, fuelled by the arrival of NFC-enabled microSD cards and a recognition that there is a business model to be found — so long as you look for it hard enough.

In the UK, Barclaycard's partnership with Orange now looks set to lead to a commercial launch of NFC services before the end of 2010. And, with the results of Citi's trial in Bangalore now in, it's clear the company has now set its sights on a commercial launch and is determined to find a way to bring NFC to market.

The Mobey Forum, meanwhile, has published a detailed white paper explaining the options open to banks and GlobalPlatform has addressed how to ensure a card issuer's brand identity can be maintained within a consumer's mobile wallet.

Since we began publishing NFC World in October 2008, we have reported on nearly 100 NFC pilots around the world. It now looks as though, finally, key market players are getting ready to put that experience into practice.

iPay, iBuy and iCoupons?

April 14, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - A series of new patent applications demonstrate that Apple has a clear business model in place for the introduction of a comprehensive mobile payments, mobile commerce and mobile marketing business based around an NFC-enabled iPhone.

A series of patent applications filed by Apple and relating to near field communication, mobile payments, mobile advertising and mobile coupons have been published this month. Together, the patent applications describe a comprehensive end-to-end mobile payments, mobile retailing and mobile marketing service that would put Apple at the centre of a major new mobile commerce business — and provide clear evidence that the company has a solid business plan in place for the introduction of NFC services.

Last week, we reported on Apple's first four mobile payments related patents. The first two relate to peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and show an iPhone menu that would enable the user to choose from a variety of payments options at the time of purchase. Here, there is an indication that iTunes could evolve into a mobile currency, with mention of the service as one of the payments options along with bank transfer, credit and debit card options. The second pair of patent applications, meanwhile, cover the use of a 'portable device' — such as an iPhone — as a mobile point of purchase or POS terminal, able to capture information about an item for sale, determine its purchase price and process payments.

Now, two new patent applications entitled 'Smart Menu Options' and 'Real-Time Bargain Hunting' have also been published which together describe a comprehensive mobile commerce, promotions and payments service — including a clear business model that Apple could use to generate significant new revenues.

The abstract for the Smart Menu Options application explains that it primarily covers methods for choosing which payment option to use at the point of purchase ...

As well as going into detail about how a user would choose which payment option to use at the point of purchase, and also describing the use of the iPhone to deliver transport ticketing applications, the patent application also describes in detail how Apple expects to generate revenues from the service.