Community

Is that picture appropriate for Finextra?   Opinions appreciated below!

I would agree that customer choice is key here....  Modern issuing systems all have APIs that support customer elected decisions, for example: on ATM use, Foreign Spend,  eCommerce, etc.... Therefore enabliing a contactless limit to be available for consumer choice in a digital wallet seems logical.  I agree 100% with the member above..... If a consumer elects to raise the limit above £100 for contactless  then that choice and its inherent risk should be the liability of the consumer in the event that the card is lost/stolen.  Notwithstanding the fact that all issuers should have Velocity and other fraud checks in place.  These are a backstop, they are no substitute for the consumer maintaining total control of the card and its RFID footprint.   

Well said, the UK has been a great innovator in payments even with the dead hand of the PSR in place.  What I would say is that whilst freeing up the regulatory environment is great,  the payments industry can only provide grease for the economy.... we can facilitate faster, cheaper, more flexible payments and we can improve cash flows. But and its a big BUT.... the underlying requirement for the transaction must be there for us to do our job.   The increasingly managed decline of the UK economy, the offshoring of industry and the increasing cost of energy is going to hold us back.  Whilst the PM may wish to encourage AI expansion, it runs on Data Centre capacity, and Data Center capacity runs on large amounts of dependable energy, hopefully at a globally competetive price..... I dont think our Energy Secretary has dependable or cheap in his current vocabulary. Lets hope the PM calls him out on this, and addresses the Payments and Banking sectors needs when it comes to onshore commerce and cheap and reliable energy.

Maybe a lot of the migrants moving to the USA will be HSBC IT Staff? 

There have been recent security scares around Deep Seek and Chat GPT....   It may well be this PLUS  challenges when it comes to integrating AI with Legacy systems are form another barrier to adoption?   I am not a banker, would be interesting to hear from some.

This supports the Managed Decline theory.  Disappointing that Lloyds is failing to invest in growing and supporting UK IT Talent.   They are joined by HSBC who are also offshoring many IT and Management roles.    Lets see if Challenger Banks can fill the gaps the old guard are leaving here and do so with Domestic staff who understand the needs of the British public

I see the percentage growth numbers - what is the Actual User base?  has it grown from 1  to 2 to 3. or is it growing in the thousands ?

I hope the PA included the need to focus on the reduction of energy costs (primarily electricity), to enable the Payments Industry and our colleagues to operate our Data Centers and AI platforms competetively..... Growth requires cheap and plentiful access to low cost and abundant energy supplies. 

There is at least one of these a year......  Cash is dead?  Long live cash !!!!    I remember speaking to colleagues at Fiserv, back in the day when i worked there about the industry forecast of the death of cash - and we laughed.... Cash was down as a percentage of the overall mix, but UP in empirical terms......     Merchants that refuse cash should suffer the fate of those who could not take China Union Pay in the Middle East....   The CUP sales teams would go around,  get a full trolley load of goods - or a counter-top laden with Watches/Jewellery/expensive clothes and  then pull out a CUP card......  the merchants smile would disappear along with the deeply saddened would be purchasers..... So Sorry, you dont accept my card.....  To be followed by a call to the Acquirer pushing for CUP to be accepted

Maybe consumers interested in keeping cash can pull similar stunts, when Cash is refused 

This sounds very refreshing -  It looks like BOI sees real value in maintaining its High Street presence and investing in the provision of Automated services  via its re-vamped ATM network.

This is still only one Bank branch per 22,000 Adult citizens, but has the dual benefit of  providing a strong Marketing and Service-Partnership message to the local community 

The blend of traditional POS and Branch banking, along with an  increased focus on technology and efficiency sounds like the perfect mix to me.