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Interesting thoughts and clearly from a very knowledgeable perspective. Is plastic really going to be able to compete with mobile? With mobile loyalty, I can track spends, combine with HCE products, combine with p2p products, get alerted when I am close to shops with offers and so on. And for those people on low data bundles, will they still be on low data in 12 months... some yes, but many no, I would think. Its difficult to be black and white about it but it just feels like the time is right, or very close to right, for the big move to mobile. 

Agreed Marcus. Cloud contact with a device allows closer contact.. ie closer scrutiny by the issuing side and hence protection against fraud. With frequent token cycling and p2pe the bones of good longer term solutions are there. My biggest concern is that with the proliferation of solutions being put into play, whilst most will be robust, some will be, inevitably, weak and when exploited, public confidence will be rocked.

Whilst I see the attractiveness of the SE model, I cannot agree with Stephen Wilson. The statement about putting EMV cards and ATMs in the cloud does not really hold much meaning ... EMV cards are in the cloud in the sense that in spite of local cardholder verification, the vast majority of transactions are online and authenticated as a complete transaction on the issuer side. The advantage of cloud based operations outweighs the SE model in that the Issuers ability to make an informed decision to approve/decline is enhanced by the cloud data passed to it (eg, token passed to phone at time hhmm, geographical location patterns as expected etc etc). Further the cloud allows card processors to enhance EMV through usage of cryptography of their own within discretionary components of the authorisation message. The cloud allows far better control when it comes to hosting your wallet on multiple devices.  All routes have their challenges - but its probably a given that we are heading towards ever greater connectivity, not isolated behaviour.