Contactless and e-wallets overhyped, new report

Ixaris and Anthemis have released the Payments Innovation Jury Report 2013, which, dear readers, you can download here.

Some interesting findings, in particular the stuff on e-wallets and mobile payments technology. Over half of the Jury, made up of major players in the global payments sector, does not believe there is a strong business case for e-wallets to replace credit and debit card payments. Mobile payments technology will have more applications in developing economies rather than developed economies. Although mobile technology is seen as the biggest driver for payments innovation, Jurors consider mobile payments to be overhyped. NFC/contactless payments are the most overhyped mobile payments type, with e-wallets second.

A solution in search of a problem, then, or is there some substance to all the mobile payments hype? I'm not sure 2013 will bring us any closer to the answers. 

Charm offensive

Interesting to see Tesco on a charm offensive in the newspapers this morning. They've placed double page ads with 'What burgers have taught us' on one page and on the other a series of statements assuring customers that they've learned their lesson and are working hard to put things right. The ad signs off with: "We are changing"

Got me thinking, why don't the banks do more of this? Wouldn't it be just what the doctor ordered re. PPI mis-selling, for instance?

For the first ad from RBS, perhaps: What a pre-tax loss of £5.17 billion has taught us...We are changing, honest!

Cash under fire

According to the recent Visa Payment Attitudes Study, we lose on average $365 each year by using cash instead of cards. This consists of $80 worth of idle change just lying around the home, car or office, and $285 worth of unused foreign currency lost after trips abroad. You can read a Visa blog post on this here.

Regardless of whether you believe these figures are correct or not (they certainly don't bear any relation to my life), the fact remains that cash isn't going anywhere soon. As much as the likes of Visa would like to see it gone, it remains popular with a general public who find it convenient and secure and who, more importantly, remain indifferent to heavily hyped contactless cards.

Now, where's my wallet? I need to grab a fiver so I can buy a mid-afternoon snack.

Banning booth babes

Roy Walker with some booth babes at Infosec Europe last year

This week, Reed Exhibitions, organisers of the Infosecurity Europe event, have announced that they're outlawing the use of ‘booth babes’ (you know, the  ladies we often see on tech vendors' stands, all skimpy outfits, cleavage and smiles), one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to attracting foot traffic.

You can read more on this here.

"For years now, more and more information security vendors have used provocatively dressed models and agency staff on their booths at Infosecurity Europe – and other industry events – to entice delegates onto their stands," writes Eleanor Dallaway, Editor of Infosecurity magazine. "For the last few years, Reed Exhibitions have received an increasing number of complaints from its visitors about this out-dated and arguably unnecessary trend, and have taken the decision to adjust exhibitor terms and conditions to ensure that similar tactics will not be deployed in 2013. Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly, the majority of complaints came from men, who argued that ‘selling sex’ was an insult on the delegate and the entire industry. Female complaints declared the behaviour demeaning and old-fashioned."

A fair few tech vendors still like to wheel out the booth babes, so it will be interesting to see the reaction to Reed Exhibitions' move. I guess the commercial thinking behind this is, Infosecurity Europe is such a massive show, companies will exhibit regardless of the terms and conditions. Either way, I think it's the right thing to do. Like Page 3, stand strumpets (sorry, couldn't resist) are archaic. Here's hoping other exhibitions follow suit.

The way Brits pay

The Payments Council not exactly sticking its neck out with the release of its latest report, The Way We Pay, which, amongst other things, charts the rise of cards at the expense of cash.

Further details here.

Note the quotes "Twenty years from now even cards may seem archaic" and "The wallet could become a historical curiosity.”

Well, on that basis Millwall may win the FA Cup (as a fan, I certainly hope so) and I could be the next winner of The X Factor, but it's highly unlikely, isn't it?

Service counts

Just been perusing the latest MoneySavingExpert.com current account service ratings. As usual First Direct tops the charts, but look at the ones propping up the rest. And we keep hearing how the retail banking establishment is getting its act together and putting the customer first blah blah blah. Depressing state of affairs.

Current account service rating, Feb 2013 (for past 6mths)
Rank	Provider	Great	OK	Poor
1	First Direct	91%	7%	2%
2	Co-op (incl Smile)	78%	18%	4%
3	Nationwide	66%	28%	6%
4	Santander 123	63%	28%	9%
5	Lloyds TSB	44%	42%	14%
6	HSBC	42%	44%	14%
7	Barclays	41%	45%	14%
8	Santander (all)	44%	37%	19%
9	NatWest/RBS Group	40%	44%	16%
10	Halifax	38%	43%	19%
11	Bank of Scotland	35%	43%	22%
Order calculated by 0 points for poor, 1 for OK and 2 for great. 9,504 votes in total - we've ignored banks with fewer than 100 votes.

Contactless cards: hype vs reality pt 2

Visa Europe and Streamline are to further roll-out contactless payments at Boots UK stores. The announcement follows an initial launch which has seen over 600 of the retailer's largest stores begin to offer contactless to customers including London outlets zone 1-4.

One of these is situated near where I work. The contactless experience in there is always poor and I don't bother with it after a couple of frustrating attempts (see previous blog post for more details). So I have to smile when Jonathan Vardon, IT director, Boots, UK comments: "Our aim is to offer customers a great shopping experience with quick, easy ways to pay and we believe that contactless payment is one way to deliver this as the technology has helped to reduce transaction and queuing times. We know that our customers want us to offer an unrivalled choice of services and products and we hope they will enjoy the benefits of using contactless technology in our store."

Hopefully with this further roll-out will come further staff education. We often hear that a barrier to widespread contactless adoption is low customer awareness. But financial services providers have been doing good work on building this up of late. The ball is now firmly in the retailers' court. IMHO a significant barrier is retailers not visibily promoting the offering and staff not knowing if they can accept contactless payments or having the relevant information to hand (payment limit etc).