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Ketharaman - I like your point re Omnichannel. Yes, that would be great. I think it would take a very brave bank to pull out of the mobile space given the attention it is gettingn in the industry. And as you point out, from an economics point of view, it might even look like that attention is unwarranted at present!

Hi Ketharaman,

The 1T GBP you mention, is that all banking or just the bit that handles retail and consumer bill payments? I would have been interested if Chris' article mentioned in the first paragraph what the 5.8-6.3bn was as a slice of the total pie and what is the applicable pie (come on Chris, I know you will have that info tucked away ;-)

I did a quick calculation and the growth is just over 8% in a year. Given the hype I'd agree, that doesn't seem earth-shattering. Internet banking came of age in a world where branch was the norm. But branches have been closing to cut costs, and the new internet is a smartphone app which is far simpler to access (functionally, as well as technically) with relatively invisible cost to the consumer (unless you buy prepaid phone). 

Seems to me consumers are demanding the choice. Accenture published findings today that "1 in 4 Brits consider using digital only banks", supporting the notion of choice and keeping the branch. But change is in the air, and millenials are the future, not us aging folks :-)  

Normally I'd agree with your statement on not justifying exuberance, but can you imagine any bank that would pull out of the race at this point in time? Their challenge is to create a valuable service that keeps/attracts customers, and helps them lower the bottom line.  Now the merchant angle, that's a different story...

I believe the banks compete on who holds the registered PayM receiving account. As a consumer I don't generally care which account I get paid into as I can move the funds around thru my app. In terms of sending account, guess you just select which account you want the funds to go from and some nice wording like "your payment will go directly to your phone contact's bank account if they have registered their number" would remove any concern on has my recipient registered or not. 

A very interesting debate above. For me it boils down to this: merchants now have a choice to do something with mobile payments @ contactless POS through Visa/MasterCard that they did not have before. Arguably, the pace has not been quick due to the "Secure Element stand-off" which now has "gone away". The schemes are a little behind some of the quicker, more nimble players who are targeting real value-add, but they are coming now and they already have the rails. The enablers are there for new innovations, and there are some new players already pitching in to this space. Its going to be an interesting year.

Great idea. I have heard so many times that "POS is not broken". But take a step back and consider the true consumer experience and you realise that today's people don't want to carry a purse full of cut-out coupons and multiple loyalty cards - this is where mobile "payments" really kicks in. Benefits both consumers and merchants who stand a better job of attracting / retaining customers, whilst enabling smaller merchants to compete in the loyalty/coupon space. EAT is a great trial partner given their willingness to try things out and segment - I'd be interested to see Fashion, Airport / City Parking, Consumer Electronics being trialled too at some point (holy grail Supermarkets too?). My hunch is we'll see different segments needing different ways to interact and consumers choosing what feels natural depending on circumstance at POI ...

Hi David - I think that Matt cleared it up with his post on what Weve tend on doing, which matches your view of the PIN being a bit "old hat". Will be interesting to see what sort of traction PIN on handsets get in the cards world, I don't believe all card schemes are for it.

Hi Murray - I agree it is nice to see this "golden triangle" type of initiative as you put it. 

With reference to high value transactions and contactless, you are of course correct. For high value contactless NFC transactions though, I wonder how the PIN could be captured by the POS terminal (would it be secure enough to capture on the handset?? What if the handset if flat etc) without a card being available to just dip into the chip reader.

Sounds simple and I can see how this could work for small value payments, integrating with an app for value adding services such as configuring the NFC defaults, or integrated loyalty accrual and coupon clipping, so adding some value back into the mix for the merchant. Reusing existing rails and all that entails clearly going to make things easier. International ramifications too. 

The big challenges will be (a) what do do for payments above £20 - PIN auth not a simple solution so interesting to see what comes out there; and (b) what the commercials will look like to cover costs for the MNOs which is a new party in essence to what is already in place for contactless. 

But how will the Payments team compete with the oh-so-important UI team for a slice of the development pie? I sense a VERY long run up to release of anything meaningful. I do not doubt that an Apple inspired payments ecosystem would be nothing short of fantastic, I just doubt that they will actually move quickly enough to make a splash.

would be good to understand how refunds work, if/how chargeback rules work and how merchants and consumers are protected. Also if/when credit can be enabled. I'd give a go as all done in my bank's app and I trust bank (to handle money ;-) and is better than PingIT as I wouldn't have hassle of top ups