February 11th, 2023 by Admin

Digital Wallet PrivacyCitigroup, U.S. Bancorp and members of The Clearing House address negativity surrounding data security concerns with digital or electronic payments. A new system launched by the banks called Secure Cloud will add a layer of protection for mobile wallets. Mobile wallet providers such as banks, credit card providers and even non-bank providers such as Google Wallet and ISIS. Paul Galant, head of enterprise payments at Citigroup says “We want to see this type of innovation [digital payments] continue, and it needs to be built on a foundation that’s sustainable. In this era of cyberattacks, fraud and data breaches, the banking industry really can do a lot better.”

Secure Cloud which The Clearing House will begin testing later this year is designed to keep cardholders credit and debit card data from leaking into less secure and private databases operated by technology vendors and e-commerce merchants. Digital wallets make a smartphone or tablet device replace traditional physical wallets and allow cardholders to wave their smart phone or tablet near digital readers to complete an electronic payment at the point of sale, rather than swiping credit cards. Secure Cloud seeks to replace the credit card information in a phone or tablet’s wallet with a ‘token’. Tokenized data is a scrambled sequence of characters that can be used to satisfy an electronic payment shielding the credit card holder from 3rd party or merchant account data gathering. The mobile wallet uses the token instead of credit card data at the point of a digital transaction. Banks will then match the token from the electronic wallet to the actual credit card account leaving the merchant none the wiser. By not saving the credit card data onto the phone or tablet, security and privacy increases.

In the world of digital payment processing, thieves have targeted merchant accounts that store credit card and personal information rather than targeting the more secure banking defenses. As mobile payments proliferate, and payment systems evolve, we have a new opportunity to make our digital transactions more secure. The Clearing House plans to run tests in the fourth quarter of 2013 into next summer.  US Bancorp will handle the merchant account end of electronic transaction through their Elavon acquiring unit. Although initial testing will involve smartphones and tablets equipped with Near Field Communications or NFC that provides tap to pay or wave to pay technology, Secure Cloud could eventually migrate to e-commerce and m-commerce mobile commerce payment systems.

Secure Cloud hopes to establish Open Standards available to banking and non-banking entities such as Google’s Wallet services. This will allow any digital wallet provider to adopt the standard and even build on it to ease the transition to mobile payment processing. Security and convenience are at the heart of the digital payment landscape and Secure Cloud hopes to provide the security end both to banks and mobile wallet users.

Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy Tagged with: , , , ,

February 9th, 2022 by Admin

John Stewart
January 17, 2022
https://www.digitaltransactions.net/trends-like-open-banking-and-bnpl-will-sustain-e-commerces-hot-streak-a-report-says/

Open banking, single-click checkout wallets, and the hot buy now, pay later trend will all help drive e-commerce volume worldwide in the coming five years, predicts Juniper Research in a report released Monday. This momentum is likely to push online sales long after the short-term impetus from the pandemic subsides, Juniper says.

E-commerce volume totaled $4.9 trillion globally in 2021, a figure the United Kingdom-based research firm forecasts will reach $7.5 trillion in 2026, when China will control a 37% share. Wider availability of multiple e-commerce channels, including mobile devices, will propel the overall growth worldwide, Juniper says. But along with the boom in e-commerce will come a corresponding growth in fraud via identity theft, account takeovers, and fraudulent chargebacks, the report warns. China, for example, will account for more than 40% of fraud losses worldwide in 2025, at more than $12 billion, Juniper forecasts.

Open banking is a trend by which fintechs can verify balances in consumers’ accounts and transfer funds to pay for online purchases. As standards bodies work to promulgate standards for this business, e-commerce payment providers “should … partner with specialists in … specific emerging payment areas to keep pace with changing merchant expectations around acceptance types,” the research firm says in its release, referring to digital wallets and crypto as well as open banking.


Open banking has taken on a higher profile in the global payments market with efforts by both of the global card networks to acquire firms that specialize in this area. Visa Inc. has acquired Tink AB, while Mastercard Inc. bought Aiia and Finicity Corp.

Physical goods will continue to dominate e-commerce spending, the report says, accounting for 82% of payment value by 2026. To tap into the trend, Juniper advises, payments providers should support buy now, pay later plans, which allow consumers to split purchases into four equal installments paid over a six-week period at no interest. BNPL is becoming more controversial, however, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched an investigation of the option and as reports emerge that consumers with multiple accounts are more likely to miss a payment.

While still a big trend, e-commerce sales in the U.S. market cooled significantly last year as the pandemic effect lost some of its force. Third-quarter sales in 2021 reached $214.6 billion, up 6.6% year-over-year, according to the Census Bureau, which tracks retail sales. That follows an 8.9% rise in the second quarter and three straight quarters with increases of 32% or more. Fourth-quarter 2021 results are not yet available.

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