CRYPTOCURRENCY 11 • UK Finance: Card Use Soars Past Cash
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www.cardsinternational.com Issue 557 / july 2018 BUBBLING OVER CRYPTOCURRENCIES COURT THE BANKS, BUT WILL THEY SCORE? ANALYSIS PRODUCTS COUNTRY SNAPSHOTS The rise of millennial Starling Bank flips The inside track on card consumers buying gift consumer and business payments in the Czech cards for their own use debit cards on their head Republic, Greece and Japan CI July 2018 557.indd 1 02/08/2018 10:07:06 contents this month COVER STORY NEWS 05 / EDITOR’S LETTER 06 / DIGEST • Global Bank and Ecard to offer UnionPay prepaid cards in US • Mastercard to roll out card fraud detection device in Singapore • Chase and Hyatt partner to launch new credit card • Bahrain Islamic Bank introduces new card loyalty programme • Barclays and Frontier Airlines upgrade World Mastercard • National Bank of Canada rolls out contactless card • Nearly 5 million transactions failed during Visa’s network outage • SIX Payment Services renews contract with Belgian Bancontact • AmEx and Amazon unveil new co- branded credit card CRYPTOCURRENCY 11 • UK Finance: card use soars past cash Editor: Group Editorial Director: Director of Events: Douglas Blakey Ana Gyorkos Ray Giddings +44 (0)20 7406 6523 +44 (0)20 7406 6707 +44 (0)20 3096 2585 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Senior Reporter: Sub-editor: Head of Subscriptions: Patrick Brusnahan Nick Midgley Alex Aubrey +44 (0)20 7406 6526 +44 (0)161 359 5829 +44 (0)20 3096 2603 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Junior Reporter: Publishing Assistant: Sales Executive: Briony Richter Mishelle Thurai Jamie Baker +44 (0)20 7406 6701 +44 (0)20 7406 6592 +44 203 096 2622 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Customer Services: +44 (0)20 3096 2603 or +44 (0)20 3096 2636, [email protected] Financial News Publishing, 2012. 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London office: John Carpenter House, John Carpenter Street, London, EC4Y 0AN Asia office: 1 Finlayson Green, #09-01, Singapore 049246 Tel: +65 6383 4688, Fax: +65 6383 5433 Email: [email protected] follow CI on twitter @Payments_News 2 | July 2018 | Cards International CI July 2018 557.indd 2 02/08/2018 10:07:28 contents July 2018 COUNTRY SNAPSHOTS 16 / CZECH REPUBLIC Czech consumers generally use cash for day- to-day, low-value transactions. However, its use declined during the review period due to a growing preference for payment cards and a rise in contactless transactions 18 / GREECE Government initiatives to revive the economy, including cuts in public sector employment, defence and other state spending, meant the country registered real GDP growth of 1.0% in 2017, up from -3.2% in 2013 20 / JAPAN Cash accounted for 78.1% of the overall Japanese payment volume in 2017. However, the upcoming 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are expected to provide impetus to the cards and payments industry 16 ANALYSIS DISTRIBUTION 10 / SELF-GIFTING 14 / EMIRATES NBD Gift cards are an often-purchased present; Emirates NBD has partnered with Diebold they are flexible and can be given to anyone, Nixdorf to deliver a new digital kiosk that the no matter the personal relationship. However, bank hopes will increase onboarding. It looks consumers have now started to purchase them like a futuristic ATM, but it can in fact do for themselves. Patrick Brusnahan reports much more. Patrick Brusnahan reports 20 FEATURES PRODUCTS INDUSTRY INSIGHT 11 / CRYPTOCURRENCY 15 / STARLING BANK 22 / TOKEN Cryptocurrencies are courting conventional Starling Bank’s vertical card has launched. The The Open Banking revolution is here, banks, reports Ivan Castano. To really take off, digital-only bank has rotated the debit card but there is a lack of excitement, and not however, the new players still need to win the by 90 degrees to reflect the way consumers everyone seemed prepared for what was set to approval of the payments establishment such interact with their cards at checkout counters ‘revolutionise’ the financial sector. Steve Kirsch as Visa and SWIFT. Can they succeed? and ATMs. Briony Richer reports writes on how to make Open Banking work www.cardsinternational.com | 3 CI July 2018 557.indd 3 02/08/2018 10:07:36 HEAR ∤ NETWORK ∤ DISCOVER ∤ CELEBRATE SHAPE THE FUTURE OF LIFE INSURANCE LIFE INSURANCELife INTERNATIONAL Insurance International: Innovation Forum and Awards 2018 Innovation Conference & Awards 20177th November 2018 ∤ Waldorf Hilton, London London The 2018 edition of the Life Insurance International: Innovation Forum and Awards will be taking place in London on 7th November at the iconic Waldorf Hilton. We will once again be bringing together life insurers, insurtechs and solution providers for a day of discussion covering the major issues in the retail banking sector. Event Highlights : ∤ Two-stream format, with a wider variety of ∤ Oxford-style live debate considering whether Life Insurance International is the only global newsletter talks andanalyzing discussions, all of the latest trends case and developments studies in andthe global life and health insurance advances markets in robo-advice and D2C insurance keynote presentations will make most financial advisors extinct ∤ Many issues related to innovation, ∤ Industry thought leaders from the transformation, regulation and change to be established insurers to those that are discussed to give a rounded picture of the life up-and-coming along with solution providers insurance market today ∤ Awards ceremony celebrating the ∤ InsurTech innovation lab where five of the excellence in the life insurance industry best insurtech firms can demonstrate their innovative solutions PROPOSAL FOR SPONSORS www.timetric.com Bronze Sponsors: Supported by For more details please contact: Page 2 Vicki Greenwood on [email protected] or call +44 (0) 20 3096 2580 editor’s letter Biometric payments set to take off Douglas Blakey, Editor uly kicked off with a trip to Mastercard for a hugely to some contactless transactions, as a check to ensure the card encouraging demonstration of its biometric card is being used by its owner. J featuring an inbuilt fingerprint sensor. Crucially, the biometric Mastercard will not require any The biometric card has already proved itself in South Africa. upgrades to be made to existing payment terminals at shops. The potential game-changer is remote enrolment. Mastercard However, in-store chip-and-PIN transactions are already teamed up with clever folks from fingerprint biometric smart compliant and use two factors. card experts IDEX to enable consumers to register their The end of passwords fingerprint data on their payment cards from the comfort of Although the biometric payment measures are designed to their own homes. The ability to onboard customers remotely is protect consumers and businesses from being defrauded, surely the key to its success. Mastercard is working with banks and the rest of the industry There has been talk for years of a biometric card to launch to ensure they are implemented without ‘disrupting’ the in the UK that would enable consumers to pay by fingerprint. convenience of payments for consumers. Finally, we may see some real progress, thanks in part to new As Mastercard has argued, the use of passwords is outdated; EU regulations come into place in September 2019 with the customers forget them and retailers want to avoid consumers aim of tackling online fraud. abandoning shopping baskets. Strong Customer Authentication Mastercard said that UK banks are interested in the The regulations, known as Strong Customer Authentication, technology; let us all hope that the talks said to be underway will tackle online fraud by increasing the number of prove to be constructive. transactions subject to two-factor authentication by the payer. Count me out With regards to card payments, currently just 1-2% of Another month brings another bundle of news stories online transactions require cardholder authentication. This about increasing interest in crypto-cards. CI is, of course, is set to rise to up to 25% or one in four payments from next enthusiastically covering developments including a market September. update from Ivan Castano (pages 11-13). Authentication for online payments and account access will From an editorial point of view, it is all very interesting. be based on the use of two or more different factors: From a personal viewpoint as a consumer, however, the writer • Something you know, such as a password; remains sceptical bordering on hostile. Quite why anyone • Something you have, such as a phone or card, and wants to hold funds or credit card denominated in such a • Something you are, such as a fingerprint. volatile currency as Bitcoin or even more obscure crpto- currencies beats me. This will mostly impact card payments made over the An anonymised currency backed by no government remains internet – be it a desktop or mobile purchase. It will also apply a great source of interest, but as a punter, count me out. < Get in touch with the editor at: [email protected] www.cardsinternational.com | 5 CI July 2018 557.indd 5 02/08/2018 10:07:38 News | Digest news digest Global Bank and Ecard to offer Chase and Hyatt partner UnionPay prepaid cards in US to launch new credit card US-based financial services technology cultural attractions, and just about anywhere business Ecard has revealed plans to market payment is accepted.