Speed

One thing that is clear from modern life is that it isn't slowing down any time soon, Everywhere you look the world is getting faster and the Financial Service Industry has been doing this for years; it pioneered IT to smooth transactions inside companies and between companies, it created networks that span the globe, from interbank to consumer payments cards.

But often times the brake on that speed is the actual interface between systems and between individuals and the systems.

Think of the London Tube or buses, think of the problem of driver only operation where long queues of customers would form at bus stops as would-be passengers fumbled to find the "exact change" or the Tube ticket machines where you had to both find the correct change but also figure our how many zones you were going to travel and pay in advance.

Or in restaurant, particularly fast food outlets, that fumbling for change and if you produced a card, the consternation over how this could be accepted and how long that process would take….

Today, many of these issues have been solved by the use of payment cards; contactless cards are usable through out London's transport system, delaying each person by 300 milliseconds, not 3 minutes, and contactless gets you your Big Mac pretty much as quickly as the server can load up the (recyclable) paper bag……

But we still crave speed;

• contactless is pretty much unheard of in the Automotive Fuel market, mainly because the payment limits (in the UK) mean that you can't fill a tank
• buying a sandwich and a bottle of water on an aircraft must be the longest transaction time of any merchant anywhere (I've seriously bought cars in less time)
• The hassle factor and security issues over "closed-loop" payment cards used at all-inclusive vacation resorts and cruise ships slow down the rush to the sun-loungers

All of these may seem like superficial issues, but then so was the speed of travellers through Holborn Tube Station at 8:00am or the number of ticket machines and inspectors needed for a transit system that more than doubled its growth in less than a decade……

So how do we solve the slow-down and security issues identified? We use the power of mobile.

We add a mobile payment capability to the apps already in these markets, we secure the overall transaction to EMVCo standards, give an ability to manage the financial transaction and add strong customer authentication (as required by law in the EU from 2019) and make as much as possible of all of this invisible to the consumer.

Simples………