So here it is Merry Christmas

This will be my last blog post of 2011 (no cheering, please!) I took the November/December issue of FStech to press earlier this month and my last day in the office is this Friday. With the mag out of the way and Christmas fast approaching, this week is basically a stream of lunch meetings and Yuletide parties, including SourceWire's annual press do at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. It’s a tough job but…

I’ll sign off by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It's been an eventful year for yours truly. I started 2011 as Editor of sister title Retail Systems and end it at the helm of FStech. I've thoroughly enjoyed the first six months in charge and am looking forward to kickstarting 2012 with the FStech Awards (shortlist to be sorted, followed by the judging day in early February...lots to get through). Thanks to all who have supported and worked with the title this year, including Paul Rodgers for doing a great job of chairing our Payments Technology Conference in November; and those who have agreed to be on the judging panel for the aforementioned awards: that man again, Paul Rodgers; Wil Cunningham, Disaster Recovery Extension Program - Delivery Lead, Lloyds Banking Group; Ramzi Musallam, Information Security Consultant, Greatpark Consulting; Neira Jones, Head of Payment Security, Barclaycard; Kevin Brown, Head of Global Product Management, RBS Global Transaction Services; Tim Holman, President, ISSA-UK and CEO 2-sec; and Glenn Murphy, Head of IT, London & Capital.

Right, I’m off to gorge myself on mince pies and mulled wine. Happy Christmas and here’s to a prosperous 2012!

Payments Technology Conference review

In the process of writing a review of the FStech/Retail Systems Payments Technology Conference, which took place in London last week. It was a really good day, a full house and lots of excellent speakers and panellists. Thanks to the sponsors, all those who attended and took part and Paul Rodgers of Vendorcom who did a great job of chairing.

My review of the conference will appear in the November/December edition of FStech, but for the time being here are a few of the standout comments from the day:

Rob Brown, Group EPoS Systems: "What should retailers do to drive contactless adoption? Advertise the hell out of it."

Jeremy King, European Director, PCI SSC: "It is not just protecting card data. If you have an e-commerce site, it is about protecting all your data. That is what PCI DSS can bring you."

Alan Moss, Marketing Director, VeriFone NW Europe, Middle East and Africa: "Retailers have taken so long to roll-out contactless as there hasn't been a convincing value proposition."

Paul Rodgers, Chairman, Vendorcom: "PCI never was and never will be an IT problem. The whole business needs to be involved."

Jeremy King, European Director, PCI SSC: "When we talk about contactless, there are four key words, United States of America. It hasn't adopted EMV or chip and pin but it is likely to go contactless. That will be a big driver."

Mark McMurtrie, Marketing Director, S1: "Banks still have a major role to play in this brave new world of payments."

Carl-Olav Scheible, UK MD, PayPal: "The pace of change is so great even PayPal is struggling to keep up."

Paul Rodgers, Chairman, Vendorcom: "We're in this together and that's a message that doesn't always sit comfortably with the wider industry."

Alex Kwiatkowski, Research Manager, EMEA Banking, IDC Financial Insights: "NFC may be hip but it's massively over-hyped."

Simon Austin, Commercial Director, Bank Machine: "In 2010, there were only 1.7 million contactless transactions processed in the UK. Pathetic!"

Phil Edwards, Head of Business Development, O2 Money: "We're not looking to take on the banks. Our strength lies in mobile."

Further information on the conference here.

Payments Technology Conference

Quick reminder that it's our Payments Technology Conference on Thursday (held in association with sister title, Retail Systems).

It's taking place at The IoD Hub and entry is free to financial institutions and retailers. Great line up of speakers and panellists, including Best Buy Europe, PayPal, Citibank, HSBC, Barclaycard, Bank Machine, Lloyds Banking Group and Clinton Cards.

There are still a few places left so, if you would like to come along, click here.

Payments conference update

Shameless plug time...The website has been launched for the FStech/Retail Systems Payments Conference, which will take place on Thursday, 10 November at The IoD Hub, London.

Speakers/panellists will include: Carl-Olav Scheible, UK MD, PayPal; Jeremy King, European Director, PCI-SSC; and Philip Hellyer, Enterprise Architecture Group, BestBuy Europe and Carphone Warehouse Group. The conference will be chaired by Vendorcom’s Paul Rodgers and will examine the latest cards and payments developments which are demanding a huge amount of attention in the retailer and financial sector communities. Paul will also take a look at the future of cards and payments. I know he has some really interesting views on that so miss it at your peril! There will also be discussion panels covering NFC/mobile payments and cash vs cards.

Further info here.

Happy birthday to the ATM

Forty four years ago this week, the world's first ATM was installed at a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London. Reg Varney, from the bafflingly popular ITV sitcom On the Buses (74 episodes and three spin off films! I mean, what were the British public thinking?), was the first to withdraw cash. 

On the subject of ATMs, Ron Delnevo, managing director at Bank Machine, will be one of the speakers at our forthcoming payments conference. Ron will be discussing one of the hot topics of the day - 'cash vs contactless'. The conference will take place in London during November and we're holding it in conjunction with our sister title, Retail Systems. Paul Rodgers of Vendorcom will chair and there will also be speakers from the likes of Barclaycard, Best Buy UK and S1 Corporation.

We're currently putting the finishing touches to the website, but in the meantime if you would like further information on the agenda, speaker opportunities, time, place etc, feel free to drop me a line at: scott.thompson@fstech.co.uk