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Andy Haldane gets my vote for the next governor of the BoE!  I strongly recommend downloading and reading the full speech - it includes far more than the highlights referred to above - in fact it's a comprehensive and coherent strategy for a complete systems-oriented reformation of banking as we know it.

As a long time Mobile NFC sceptic, here's my take on the subject:

http://www.collinconsulting.co.uk/opinion-articles-quick-link/129-mobile-nfc-rip.html 

But Alexander, you can already do everything you describe with plastic cards (preferably chip cards).  Substitute "NFC Mobile" with "E-Purse" and you'll come to a different conclusion.  I refer you again to my blog at http://www.collinconsulting.co.uk/resources/opinion-articles.html  

Brilliant!

I'm with Dave on this Brett.  It's all about infrastructure.  Even with "cardless" transactions, you're still talking about billions of PANs, millions of acceptance locations, issuers, acquirers, massive networks, business rules and standards, and the ingrained habits of merchants and consumers built up over decades.  That's not all going to go away overnight and it's going to take a long time for any potential competitor to build anything similar.

(Disclosure: I do a lot of consulting work for MasterCard!)

Sorry Brett, but I for one remain convinced that mobile NFC is massively overhyped and that plastic cards will be with us for many years to come.  I've set out my reasons in the following blog:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mobile-NFC-RIP-BAB-Opinion-130718.S.132491969?qid=a2bfc49f-28fc-40d6-80d9-a271b736b713&trk=group_search_item_list-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmp_130718

Let's put this in perspective.  Number of successful EMV chip transactions worldwide - about 150 billion per year.  Number of proven instances of this type of pre-play attack - zero.  Realistic liklihood of this type of attack - close to zero.  Reduction in card fraud due to EMV chip - about £1 billion per year in the UK alone.  The positives somewhat outweigh the negatives I think!  But yes, it's a theoretical implementation weakness which can be easily fixed, so a useful addition to EMV deployment best practice.

Andrew Haldane is simply brilliant.  He has written before about how the only sensible way to understand the current global financial crisis is in terms of a complex adaptive system.  Here he argues convincingly that more complex regulations are exactly the wrong response.  Let's make him the next Governor of the BoE!

No, you're not being stupid David, but maybe Visa is :-).

Excellent article Andy.  I agree, the payments industry is about the only part of UK banking which has not been a disaster over the past few years so the government's targeting of the excellent Payments Council is a mystery and will surely end in tears!