September 26th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Mobile checkout integrated into transportation ticketing app by Barclay’s Pingit
Barclay’s Pingit mobile payments service is teaming up with Corethree to bring the financial institution’s mobile checkout to public transportation customers in Britain.
Corethree offers a mobile wallet for transport ticketing in Britain. By including Barclays Pingit in its wallet, Corethree can offer users more flexibility in how they pay for tickets.
“Providing a variety of native payment solutions within the application enhances the customer experience by allowing them the same type of purchasing experience that they currently enjoy from their favorite websites and ecommerce sites.”
“In the U.S. this includes integrating with payment option like PayPal and eventually electronic wallet providers as well.”
Mobile checkout
Pingit was introduced in early 2012, enabling users to make person-to-person payments.
The app’s breadth of services have been expanded several times since to include mobile payments from NFC tags and mobile checkout for Web sites and print ads.
Corethree reports that it is the first business to integrate Barclays Pingit mobile checkout, enabling bus passengers to browse, select, purchase and use bus tickets from their mobile devices.
Over the next 12 months, Corethree and Barclays will roll out their mobile payment services to other transport operators, with the goal of reaching up to 1 million passenger journeys per day.
The service will be available via Android and iPhone devices on any mobile network.
Mobile payments entry
Public transportation organizations around the world are embracing mobile ticketing to make it easy for riders to purchase and use tickets from their smartphones. Enabling users to purchase transit tickets anywhere at any time that can be used. Last year, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority rolled out a new mobile ticketing service, giving commuters a way to purchase and display rail tickets on their smartphones.
“Transit is an integral part of consumers’ daily lives, and as such providing consumers with a secure way to pay with their phone and not have to carry cash or exact change is a great starting point for people to get comfortable using mobile payments.”
“Mobile ticketing is a great way to introduce customers to making payments from their mobile device.”
Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: checkout, devices, electronic wallet, integrating, Iphone, mobile, nfc, payment, payments service, smartphone, Tags, ticket, ticketing, tickets, transportation, travel
September 20th, 2013 by Elma Jane
U.S. Bank integrates to simplify mobile money transfers with Western Union
U.S. Bank has offered Western Union Money Transfer services since 2009, but now customers can do so via mobile. According to U.S. Bank, it is the first bank in the United States to integrate the Western Union Money Transfer services into its mobile app.
U.S. Bank is collaborating with Western Union to let U.S. Bank customers use the Western Union Money Transfer services via the U.S. Bank mobile application. “Adding Western Union enhances overall digital money movement strategy.”
“Primary goal is to make it easier for customers to send money on any device to anyone across the country or around the world.” Giving customers the most convenient banking experience by delivering and allowing customers to bank anywhere and anytime they want.
Money transfer
In order to qualify for the new service, customers must have been a customer of U.S. Bank for at least a year and have a registered mobile phone and eligible deposit account. Western Union Money Transfer services let consumers conveniently pay other consumers via mobile or desktop.
Eligible U.S. Bank mobile banking customers will now see the Western Union logo in the person-to-person money transfer options. Online banking customers will see Western Union as a funds transfer option.
U.S. Bank decided to offer the new service to make moving money as convenient as possible for its customers. Customers will be able to send money around the world from the comfort of their own home.
When consumers receive a payment through the Western Union services, they can be paid in cash and use it immediately.
Mobile banking
U.S. Bank has rolled out a number of mobile initiatives in the past few years.
In July, U.S. Bank integrated with the Square digital wallet, enabling users to fund payments made via the mobile application from their bank account.
Earlier this year, U.S. Bank even offered customers the ability to pay via NFC by providing a customized U.S. Bank Go Mobile iPhone case equipped with NFC technology.
The bank also rolled out mobile photo bill pay services last year to let customers pay their bills by simply snapping a picture of the document using the camera on a smartphone or tablet.
“As device ubiquity grows, as people become more comfortable using their phones for all their banking activities, a lot of new ways to leverage a phone’s capabilities to make banking easier for customers, customers expect their bank to offer a full rich set of money management and movement capabilities on their phones, tablets and laptops.”
Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: banking, mobile, money, nfc, payment, transfers, U.S. Bank, US Bank, western union
September 20th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Citi expands real-time mobile services for banks
Citi is ramping up its mobile strategy for banks, which are increasingly looking for real-time access to financial information such as payment status. CitiDirect BE, the company’s online banking platform for financial institutions, has launched two new mobile applications. The Mobile Payment Advisor app enables users to track the status of a payment at any time from any mobile device while the Payments Directory Mobile app provides a database of institutions worldwide that participate in U.S. dollar clearing.
“In existing scenarios, banks rely on servicing tools set up between different correspondent banks to determine the status of their payments.” Citi’s mission is to provide payment status to a larger group of users by offering readily available access points. The result is an enhanced service experience for banks, delivered by a provider aligned to their own objectives.
Payment Status
The feedback Citi has received from its financial institution clients indicates that real-time access to payment status is an important feature they are looking for. With this in mind, the CitiDirect BE Mobile Payment Advisor enables banks, their customers, or third parties to track the status of a payment at any time and from any mobile device, similar to tracking the status of a package. Users will be able to check the up-to-the-minute status of a payment online within seconds. The app requires no installation or user credentials. Users enter the sender reference, amount, currency and value date to search for payment status. The app will also help Citi streamline internal operations by cutting down on the number of calls service centers receive regarding the status of a payment. Citi reports that currently the majority of phone calls to a given service center are payment status inquiries. Such calls can take several minutes to complete and involve multiple parties.
Next Mobile Frontier
The Payments Directory Mobile app addresses the need to simplify the process of choosing from one of thousands of correspondent banks to route a payment. “Citi has at its disposal a vast repository of information to determine the best route of making a payment successfully, across multiple geographies.” This information is available to clients in physical form, CD-rom, through an electronic banking platform, and making it available on a mobile platform was a logical extension for sophisticated and innovation-focused client base.” Users can quickly search for clearing intermediaries with filtering preferences. With businesses executives having a mobile device nearby almost all the time, Citi recognizes that corporate apps are the next frontier for mobile. As such, the company is mobilizing its online banking applications little by little as part of its overall digital strategy. “In the payments space within correspondent banking, mobile tools have been launched to very receptive and excited clients.” These new channels allow them to harness Citi’s global presence and expect an upward trend in adoption of these tools by significant financial institutions client base.”
Posted in Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: banking, electronic, mobile, onine, payments
September 20th, 2013 by Elma Jane
“Hardware”: Key to Mobile Commerce’s future
If you thought mobile commerce was about the cloud or software, proof to the contrary is mounting. In fact, four key moves by three big companies over the past week have provided more evidence that software and the cloud are taking a back seat to a significant force in mobile.
OTA VS. Device Access
Without security mobile commerce is dead in its tracks after the first major breach. Two basic elements: Access to mobile apps and over-the -air security. Both necessary but they play entirely different roles. Mobile apps have direct access to our lives. With them we can share our professional story, personal lives and of course move money around with mobile banking and mobile commerce apps. Therefore, ensuring that no one but YOU can access your apps is important. That is why you probably have myriad user names, passwords and PINs. This brings us to our first big hardware move.
Apple’s Touch ID
Apple introduces hardwarebased biometrics with its new Touch ID. Essentially the first commercially product available biometric button, combines the user request (pushing button) and the identity check (scanning the fingerprint) into one action.
Apple correctly presented this feature as an excellent for a personal identification number to activate the phone or complete an iTunes purchase.
Apple’s Secure Enclave
The “secure element” is essentially hardware and software that, when combined, function like a smartcard running on a part of the mobile phone that no other app can access. Apple announced that the highly sensitive fingerprint data from its Touch ID product would not be stored on a remote server, in the cloud or even in the iPhone memory. It will be stored in the “secure enclave” of its new A7 processor chip.
Difference between a secure enclave and a secure element? Probably little or nothing. We don’t know if Apple’s secure enclave uses smartcard technology, we know it is essentially hardware and software running on the part of it’s a& chip that no other app can access.
Posted in Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: Apple, commerce, mobile, secure, Security
August 30th, 2013 by Admin
According to a poll by OnePoll on behalf of I Love Velvet titled “Consumer Mobile Point-of-Sale (MPOS) Attitudes Report” over half of retail customers think cash registers are outdated. The poll found that 51% of Americans think the cash register could soon be gone altogether as retailers opt for mobile point of sale systems. Consumers seem to favor MPOS systems allowing the shoppers to check out from anywhere in the store and that they return more often to stores with modern electronic payment technologies. Thirty five percent cited they would shop more often at stores with mobile point of sale payment systems. An additional 17% said they would share their shopping experience via social networking sites and 35% report they likely would tell a friend or recommend stores with these technologies. Forty six percent say that stores that have mobile payment systems seem to be more tech savvy and even more (56%) praise the store for making the experience more convenient and secure. Retailers are struggling to modernize their payment platforms to cut down long lines at registers, and place staff on the floor for better customer access. “It’s a great opportunity for retail store owners to dip into the mobile point of sale arena” said Richard Delos Santos of National Transaction Corporation.
Mobile point-of-sale equipment and software manufacturers are stepping up to the security plate as they seek to pass PCI DSS and other security related issues. As new mobile kiosks and point of sale hardware and software evolve so do the security challenges used to thwart credit card fraud and identity theft. The challenge for point of sale system providers is to create an increasingly secure and convenient way for customers to make electronic payments in-store or on their mobile devices. iPads, iPhones and Android tablets are often used by curious shoppers to compare and contrast features, prices and availability, why not let digital wallets be used to close the transaction? The use and connectivity of these new devices mean more complex security measures are needed to thwart attackers, crackers, and hackers.
In the coming years everything from NFC, to fingerprint readers in smartphones and tablets and even QR codes will change the landscape of mobile payment transaction processing and things are beginning to heat up. An estimated $17 Trillion of mobile transactions are predicted by 2020 and security and adoption will reign king on the streets. It might be time to look into the security and features that a mobile point-of-sale system can add over any existing point of sale systems and cash registers. Mobility is a great tool for a sales force, but security and convenience for the customer is a necessity that will only grow in the future.
Posted in Credit Card Reader Terminal, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: Android, ipad, Iphone, mobile, MPOS, payments, point of sale, Processing, smartphone, tablet, transaction
August 16th, 2013 by Admin
Today the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an open, global forum for the development of electronic transaction security standards published PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) 3.0 Change Highlights as a preview of the new version of the standards coming in November 2013. The changes will help companies make PCI DSS part of their business-as-usual activities by introducing more flexibility, and an increased focus on education, awareness and transaction security as a shared responsibility with merchant account holders.
The seven-page document is part of the Council’s commitment to provide as much information as possible during the development process and eliminate any perceived surprises for organizations in their PCI credit card security planning. Specifically, the summary will help PCI Participating Organizations and the assessment community as they prepare to review and discuss draft versions of the standards at the 2013 Community Meetings in September and October.
Changes to the standards are made based on feedback from the Council’s global constituents per the PCI DSS and PA-DSS development lifecycle and in response to market needs. Key drivers for version 3.0 updates include: lack of education and awareness; weak passwords, authorization, verification and authentication challenges; third party payment security challenges; slow self-detection in response to malware and other threats; inconsistency in assessments.
“Today, most organizations have a good understanding of PCI DSS and its importance in securing credit card data during transactions, but implementation and maintenance remains a struggle – especially in light of increasingly complex business and payment technology environments,” said Bob Russo, PCI SSC general manager. “The challenge for us now is providing the right balance of flexibility, rigor and consistency within the standards to help organizations make payment security business-as-usual. And that’s the focus of the changes we’re making with version 3.0.”
Based on feedback from the industry, in 2010 the Council moved from a two-year to a three-year standards development lifecycle. The additional year provides a longer period to gather feedback and more time for organizations to implement changes before a new version is released. Version 3.0 will introduce more changes than version 2.0, with several new sub-requirements. Proposed updates include:
- Recommendations on making PCI DSS business-as-usual and best practices for maintaining ongoing PCI DSS credit card compliance
- Security policy and operational procedures built into each requirement
- Guidance for all requirements with content from Navigating PCI DSS Guide
- Increased flexibility and education around password strength and complexity
- New requirements for point-of-sale terminal security
- More robust requirements for penetration testing and validating segmentation
- Considerations for credit card data in memory
- Enhanced testing procedures to clarify the level of validation expected for each requirement
- Expanded software development lifecycle security requirements for PA-DSS application vendors, including threat modeling
Note that these updates are still under review by the PCI community. Final changes will be determined after the PCI Community Meetings and incorporated into the final versions of the PCI DSS and PA-DSS published in November.
The change highlights document with tables outlining anticipated updates is available on the PCI SSC website:https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/documents.php
The Council will host a webinar series for the PCI community and the general public to outline the proposed changes. To register, visit: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/training/webinars.php
“PCI DSS and PA-DSS 3.0 will provide organizations the framework for assessing the risk involved with technologies and platforms and the flexibility to apply these principles to their unique payment and business environments, such as e-commerce, m-commerce, mobile acceptance or cloud computing,” added Troy Leach, PCI SSC chief technology officer.
PCI DSS and PA-DSS 3.0 will be published on 7 November 2013. The standards become effective 1 January 2014, but to ensure adequate time for the transition, version 2.0 will remain active until 31 December 2014.
For more information and to register for the 2013 Community Meetings, please visit:https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/communitymeeting/2013/
About the PCI Security Standards Council
The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum that is responsible for the development, management, education, and awareness of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and other standards that increase payment data security. Founded in 2006 by the major payment card brands American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc., the Council has more than 650 Participating Organizations representing merchants, banks, processors and vendors worldwide. To learn more about playing a part in securing payment card data globally, please visit: pcisecuritystandards.org.
Connect with the PCI Council on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/pci-security-standards-council
Join the conversation on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/PCISSC
Posted in Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale Tagged with: credit card, DSS, e-commerce, m-commerce, mobile, PA-DSS, PCI Compliance, Security, transaction
August 12th, 2013 by Admin
Small businesses are gaining traction in the mobile payment landscape. Mobile credit card readers attached to a smartphone or tablet now account for billions of dollars in m-commerce sales. “Together, mobile and social are transforming the way SMBs acquire and retain customers, With the heavy use of social media, SMB marketing is quickly becoming a two-way engagement rather than a one-way promotion.” Said Steve Marshall of BIA/Kesley. As more people switch to and upgrade their smartphones, AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile are looking to partner with digital wallet provider Isis. Read more of this article »
Posted in Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Smartphone Tagged with: American Express, biometrics, electronic payments, iPhones, m-commerce, mobile, PayPal, recognition, Smartphones, Square
August 6th, 2013 by Admin
In Canada, the game to corner mobile payment systems and the Digital Wallet is being played seriously. PayPal and Square are present but the 800 pound gorilla may have just entered the ring. Canadian banks are presenting merchant accounts capable of handling tap to pay transactions competing directly with Square and PayPal. Royal Bank of Canada has launched a mobile payment solution to provide contactless payment using Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled smartphones and tablets. Shoppers can simply wave their smartphone over a cash register or payment terminal and be on their way. No more swiping a credit card into a terminal or punching keys into a terminal and no more fumbling with cash or coins to settle a payment. Read more of this article »
Posted in Credit card Processing Tagged with: bank, bankers, blackberry, Canada, Canadian, Canadian travel agency agents, digital, electronic, financial services, ipad, Iphone, mobile, nfc, payments, PayPal, Rogers Communications, Royal Bank, smartphone, Square, tablet, travel
August 1st, 2013 by Admin
With mobile payment services clamoring for space in the digital wallet domain movers and shakers are positioning themselves for growth opportunities presented in mobile commerce settings. Google Wallet has been live for a while but now a new player is entering the arena. ISIS is rounding the ninth month of it’s pilot program in Austin Texas, and Salt Lake City Utah using near field communications based mobile payments. AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile. and Verizon Wireless have partnered with ISIS and will be providing the electronic wallet services later this year. Read more of this article »
Posted in Mobile Payments Tagged with: Coca-Cola, contactless, Digital Wallet, Google Wallet, ISIS, mobile, near field communications, nfc
