1. news
and cash among consumers and retailers alike. which both plan to participate in the first trials
When asked about their views on cheques, only scheduled to begin in October.
in brief around 6% of consumers said they preferred to The GSMA’s ‘Pay-Buy Mobile’ initiative seeks
pay by cheque, compared with 57% who preferred to define a common global approach to using
credit or debit cards. Significantly, cash was only Near Field Communications (NFC) technology to
• Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced the preferred payment method among 19% of link mobile devices with payment and contactless
that it is to issue Xiring smart card readers to its
respondents. Just over 17% of respondents had no systems. Together with a SIM/Universal Integrated
online retail banking customers. RBS customers
particular view. Circuit Card (UICC) card in a mobile handset,
will soon begin receiving the Xi-Sign 4000 for
Over one sixth of consumers questioned claimed NFC can be used to enable a wide range of secure,
APACS portable standalone EMV-enabled smart
card readers which will enable them to access to make no use of cheques at all while consumers interoperable and transparent services, such as
web banking accounts. As well as supplying the generally estimated they had reduced their use of credit and debit payments.
readers, Xiring will provide fulfilment services cheques by one third over the past year with the According to Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA:
and distribution to RBS retail customers. greatest fall among women. “After several fragmented initiatives, the mobile
Twenty percent (20%) of respondents said they phone industry is now uniting around a single
• STMicroelectronics and On Track never bother to carry a cheque book. However approach to enabling the mobile phone to be used,
Innovations (OTI) have announced that their women are more likely to carry a cheque book instead of cash or plastic credit card, at point of sale.
secure contactless microcontroller solution has than men (47% of women said they always carry a The support of the world’s leading mobile operators
received full certification from MasterCard. The cheque book when they go shopping compared to and handset manufacturers should ensure that Pay-
certification includes level 1, level 2 and CAST only 19% of men). Cheques are most popular with Buy Mobile is adopted worldwide, enabling vendors
(Chip Assessment Security Testing) certification people aged 50 and over. to achieve economies of scale and consumers to
for use as a dual application card, supporting Large retailers in particular (86%) are seeing
both MasterCard PayPass and Visa PayWave eventually use their mobile phones to pay for goods
cheque usage fall and, as a consequence, are either
applications on a single chip. STMicroelectronics and services wherever they travel.”
considering trialing non-acceptance of cheques or
is supplying the contactless microcontroller The first phase of the GSMA initiative is set to
have already abandoned them. One of the reasons
and OTI is providing the operating system begin with end-to-end trials in South Korea and other
for this decline in popularity is the high costs
and application and the contactless card countries in both Asia and Europe later this year. The
associated with processing cheques. According to
technology including the inlay technology. The Korean trial will be led by KTF and will include all
the study, in 2005/6, cheques cost UK retailers
combined OTI and ST solution is based on the key participants in the value chain, from banks and
ST19WR02, a silicon product specially designed over £104 million in areas such as extra transaction
times, extra queue costs, back office handling costs credit card providers to retail organizations, handset
for contactless payment applications. vendors and UICC card manufacturers.
and fraud linked to cheques.
Looking to the future, 64% of retailers anticipate Mobile phone based transactions are already
• SCM Microsystems has reported its financial
a further decline in cheque usage. Meanwhile the becoming commonplace in South Korea, where
results for the first quarter 2007. Revenues
report indicates that debit and credit cards are there are more than 12 million mobile payment
from continuing operations in this quarter
were US$8.5 million, up 14% from revenues considered to be the main future drivers of retail enabled handsets in circulation, with 80,000 terminal
of US$7.4 million in the first quarter of 2006. sales growth. payment machines in shops, restaurants and cafes.
First quarter 2007 revenues included US$7.1 According to Visa: “Having invested in initiatives According to the GSMA, the Pay-Buy Mobile
million from sales of smart card readers and like chip and PIN, retailers are beginning to see just initiative will build on the work of the major
other products for secure network and physical how important card payments are going to be for the credit card companies, which have developed
access, compared with sales of US$4.6 million future of their businesses. Likewise consumers are specifications to ensure global interoperability
in the first quarter of 2006. Strong sales of enjoying the convenience and security of being able between chip cards and point of sale terminals,
smart card readers have been attributed in part to pay by card, both on the high street and on-line.” regardless of manufacturer, the financial
to the implementation by federal agencies of It is likely that new innovations like contactless institution and location of transaction. The
Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 cards will only increase the popularity of cards and GSMA says it intends to work closely with leading
(HSPD-12). The company expects to achieve financial intermediaries to provide the transaction
the displacement of cash and cheques as today’s
annual revenue growth of 15% to 20% in 2007 solutions.
payment methods.
based on it’s current expectations for flat to
“Nokia is committed to the specification,
slightly lower sales of smart card readers in the
m-commerce implementation and introduction of NFC handsets
first half of 2007 and anticipated increases in
sales of smart card readers in the second half of supporting the standardized UICC-based NFC
secure element,” said Dieter May, vice president
the year from the projected expansion of various
government and enterprise security programs Momentum builds and head of Nokia Emerging Business Unit.
using smart cards.
around GSMA’s pay-buy * AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless) China
Mobile; KALL; KTF; MCI; MTN; NTT DoCoMo;
• Raritan has announced the first smart card
and common access card (CAC) reader solution
mobile project Rogers Wireless; Smart Communications; Telenor,
TeliaSonera; Telecom Italia; Turkcell, and Vimpelcom.
for a KVM switch. The new Paragon II KVM Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker,
Smart Card Reader solution is compliant with and a further 10 mobile operators have apparently
US Homeland Security Presidential Directive thrown their weight behind a GSM Association contactless
(HSPD-12) standards and is said to provide initiative to enable the worldwide use of mobile
an additional level of security for accessing and
managing data centre equipment. Raritan’s
phones for payments at retail outlets. Oberthur Card Systems
KPN, Maxis Communications, mobilkom
solution integrates an SCM Microsystems smart austria, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, SKT, claims contactless lead
card reader into a newly enhanced user station
and provides anytime, non-blocked access to
Vodafone and Wind have joined the 14 mobile
operators* that initiated the project in February in USA…
data centre servers and other IT equipment. With more than 13 million of its contactless
this year. The handset vendors in the programme
include Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, cards in circulation in the US in 2006, Oberthur
6
Card Technology Today • May 2007