Smart Cards, Smart Phones and a Cashless Society

First Data to Offer Turnkey NFC-enabled Mobile Payments Service to U.S. Banks from Early 2011

The race towards NFC payments in the US is quickening

September 17, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - The payments processing giant has signed a deal with Korea's SK C&C, responsible for the technology behind SK Telecom's mobile contactless payments service, and will begin offering a turnkey NFC payments service to US banks from the first quarter of 2011.

First Data has partnered with South Korea's SK C&C to offer turnkey NFC-based TSM and mobile wallet services to its US banking and merchant customer base.

The two companies will deliver a complete set of mobile commerce services to First Data's financial institution and merchant customers, including a TSM (trusted service manager) platform and mobile wallet software. Credit, debit, prepaid and gift cards will all be supported.

SK C&C is part of the $85bn SK Group, the South Korean conglomerate that also owns SK Telecom. The mobile commerce solutions developer has offered TSM, mobile wallet and mobile banking services in the South Korean market since 2002, where it supplies the technology underpinning SK Telecom's T Smart Pay service. It is also involved in a deal SK Telecom signed with Japanese mobile operators KDDI and Softbank in July that will see the trio work together to move to a NFC-standard approach for their mobile contactless services.

First Data has been moving toward NFC for some time. Earlier this year the company signed up Tyfone's microSD-based NFC solution, which it will offer to consumers to accelerate the arrival of NFC-based mobile commerce. The new service will act as the back end and will be able to handle 'bridging technologies' and alternative secure element form factors as well as SIM-based NFC.

"We can support microSD — for example, Tyfone — embedded secure elements and NFC-enabled SIMs," a First Data spokesperson confirmed to NFC World.

Visa, meanwhile, is testing DeviceFidelity's similar microSD-based product and stated earlier this month that it will also be commercially ready early in 2011.

First Data's mobile commerce offering will roll out in the US initially and is planned to eventually go worldwide. The company processes payments for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries.

VeriFone, Bling Nation Partner for Mobile Tap-and-Pay Initiative

September 22, 2010

Contactless News - VeriFone and Bling Nation are partnering to support an introductory mobile payments program in Palo Alto, Calif. featuring VeriFone’s payment solutions and Bling Nation’s BlingTags.

The new program enables consumers the ability to simply tap-and-pay for purchases using a BlingTag at the physical point-of-sale systems with contactless technology.

The solution enables customers to purchase goods via alternative payment methods — including PayPal and direct debit of bank accounts — while automatically receiving real-time account balance updates and instant rewards through an intelligent loyalty program.

Bling Nation is distributing the contactless/NFC-enabled VeriFone VX 810 Duet for countertops and wireless VX 680 to participating merchants as fully-functional “Blingers” that accept payments from consumers using BlingTags to tap-and-pay. A BlingTag is Bling Nation’s quarter-sized microchip sticker that enables mobile payment transactions.

After the conclusion of the introductory program, VeriFone will be enhancing its PAYware Connect transaction gateway service to allow PAYware merchants to seamlessly consolidate traditional and alternative payment methods on a single card acceptance device. The VeriFone, Bling and PayPal X platform solution will be available to over 350 existing PAYware Connect resellers.

NFC-enabled Mobile Payments Begins to Get the Attention of the Mass Market — But Will It Be a Help or a Hindrance?

September 16th, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - After years of low profile technical development, it's now becoming clear that the commercial arrival of NFC is going to be very high profile indeed. And that high profile is set to bring further complications to those looking to commercialise NFC services.

Our article last month about Apple hiring an NFC specialist, for instance, was picked up by mainstream media from the New York Times, Fast Company and the Guardian through to tech and mobile publications such as Wired, Techcrunch, Engadget and Apple Insider — and more than a hundred other publications around the world. It's clear there is a growing mass market interest in NFC technology.

But it's not just the mass media that's interested in NFC. In the US, in particular, consumer rights advocates, government regulators, retail trade associations and anti-RFID groups are also starting to keep a close eye on the technology.

That means mobile network operators, for one, are not going to be able to quietly introduce new mobile payments services. Instead, every step they take is going to be made under the intense spotlight of media and regulatory attention — and that could make things move ahead more slowly rather than quickly.

Businesses Could Learn a Lot from Campus Smart Card Programs

September 23, 2010

Contactless News - “Colleges and universities are leading the way with multiple-use contactless ID cards that contain several applications, and the broader community could learn a lot from them,” said Jim Ellis, director of Contactless Payments at HID Global.

Higher education institutions utilize contactless technology to perform multiple functions for students, faculty and staff including: physical access to classrooms and residence halls, library checkout, transportation, food services and vending, as well as debit card transactions in partnership with financial institutions.

“Using the college campus as a paradigm, other communities — including cities, corporations and government entities — could benefit from converging applications via multi-use smart cards, ” explained Ellis. “A single card could change the way a customer or employee accesses and pays for products and services. The result is smoother flows of people and vehicles, shorter queues and faster, more intuitive transactions.”

Ellis added, “Reaching the full potential of smart card technology requires cooperation between multiple entities on key operational matters — not always an easy task. Transit authorities, banks, credit card companies and retailers who wish to engage in a partnership can struggle with agreements on technology choices, rules for payment schemes, administration and costs.”

“Still, the fact remains that there are some great business reasons for companies and organizations to seek out partnerships. A bank that partners with a transit authority to make purchasing a metro ticket as easy as carrying an ATM card, has the opportunity to reinforce its brand to transit customers on a constant basis,” continued Ellis. “Multi-use smart cards can also define loyal, active members of their respective business and municipal communities. Consumers win through streamlined access to services they use every day, and businesses gain customer loyalty and a greater share of each customer’s spending.”