Payments Archive

According to Samsung, wearable vendors and banks have been piloting and launching a number of solutions that employ multiple types of near field communication (NFC)- enabled form factors, including fobs, rings and stickers in addition to smartwatches and wristbands. Although wearable payments are considered an early niche market, gradual growth is projected as the industry works through multiple issues, including upgrading point-of-scale (POS) terminal infrastructure, consumer comfort with wearables and refining the frictionless payment process.

A recent survey commissioned by VocaLink found that more than a third of Dutch millennials (36%) and a quarter of UK millennials (25%) are now making mobile payments in-store, online and in-app.

As Rian Boden of NFC World reports, the survey also found that 58% of UK respondents would prefer to use a mobile payment service provided by their bank.

Mobile payments currently offer a number of benefits for consumers, retailers and financial institutions. However, next-gen mobile payments will shape the contours of a new retail paradigm that can help redefine the traditional brick-and-mortar experience.

Indeed, shopping will one day become a truly interactive experience, with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi beacons scanning digital profiles, stored in the cloud and accessed on mobile devices and wearables, to generate recommendations in real time.

Martin Cox, a Strategic Product Marketing at Rambus Bell ID, recently observed that technologies such as tokenization are steadily evolving as the mobile payments ecosystem matures.

“Now a security requirement for paying by smartphone, banks are faced with the challenge of implementing and managing tokenization,” he explained.

Apple Pay went live in Japan earlier this week, allowing consumers to use their iPhones and Apple Watches to pay for goods and services with a simple touch.

IBM Japan – using Rambus Bell ID’s complete token service provider (TSP) technology – will support Japanese banks with Apple Pay integration and mobile payments security across a range of international payment platforms and, importantly, the FeliCa (Felicity Card) regional scheme.