March 2016 Issue 529 www.cardsinternational.com REAPING REVENUE REWARDS IN RWANDA Contactless brings an end to fare theft on public transport • REPORT: Mobile Payments • PRODUCTS: HalCash • FEATURE: Contactless in Africa • COUNTRY SURVEYS: Sweden, Norway and France CI 529.indd 1 29/02/2016 16:29:25 Multichannel digital solutions for fi nancial services providers To fi nd out more about us please visit: www.intelligentenvironments.com Intelligent Environments is an international provider of innovative mobile and online solutions for fi nancial services providers. Our mission is to enable our clients to always stay close to their own customers. We do this through Interact®, our single software platform, which enables secure customer acquisition, engagement, transactions and servicing across any mobile and online channel and device. Today these are predominantly focused on smartphones, PCs and tablets. However Interact® will support other devices, if and when they become mainstream. 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IE RBI final design.indd 1 17/09/2015 11:21:32 Cards International EDITOR’S LETTER CONTENTS EDITOR’S LETTER 2 ANALYSIS: CREDIT CARDS Andrew Edem, the head of Profit to come before loyalty engineering & information security officer at the PPRO Group, examines the credit card and if there’s any life left in the payment device 6 FEATURE: CASHLESS SOCIETY t was, I suppose, inevitable that UK credit many people here will be able to benefit from this? Paul Underwood of Thames Card card issuers would slash rewards perks in The latest stats from the UK Cards Association, Technology looks at cashless services response to the EU interchange regula - released as CI goes to press suggests that contactless in the United Kingdom. Are cashless tion. is growing healthily in the absence of any mass mar- payments sustainable? Are they ket promotional incentives. worthwhile? IMarks and Spencer is the latest: it has pared back Spending on contactless cards rose more than 7 REPORT: MOBILE PAYMENTS the rewards it gives to cardholders who will now three-fold in 2015 to reach £7.75bn, more than Mobile payments are still a relatively receive one point for every £5 ($6.95) spent outside new service in the financial sector. of Marks & Spencer, as opposed to one point for double the preceding seven years combined. In However, it has expanded into a 2014, £2.32bn was spent using contactless. every £2 of spend. global marketplace with insane There were a total of 1.05 billion contactless amounts of competition. Who Tesco Bank halved the loyalty points on its credit purchases in 2015, up 228% on the previous year. are the main players and how are card last September, blaming the EU interchange they attempting to differentiate Contactless spending was up 233% on 2014. cap, following a similar move by Capital One. themselves in the digital sphere? Despite such impressive growth, it is still early P looks into Meantime, John Lewis continues to offer its Part- atrick Brusnahan days. Major cities such as Manchester and Glas- Timetric’s research into competition nership credit with its rewards element as yet undi- gow have still to get their act together to roll out within mobile payments luted: it offers one point for every £1 spent at John TfL-style contactless systems; major retailers such 10 DISTRIBUTION: HALCASH Lewis, Waitrose and John Lewis Insurance, and one as Sainsburys have been lamentably dilatory in roll- HalCash North America is hoping to point for every £2 spent everywhere else. ing out contactless enabled POS. attract US ATM deployers to its Pin4 Customers receive a £5 voucher on achieving 500 cardless ATM access technology. The expected roll out of Android Pay in the UK Robin Arnfield writes about this points. in March will doubtless attract a great deal of atten- development In the event that John Lewis does not take an axe tion and overexcited PR pitches, overestimating the to its programme, it is not difficult to envisage the 12 FEATURE: CONTACTLESS IN AFRICA significance of the launch. No doubt lessons will card increasing in popularity. Alexander Atkins examines have been learned from Google Wallet. I seem to the progress being made with Innovative card programme marketing innova- recall receiving some ludicrous sound bites from contactless technology in Rwanda tions seem to be thin on the ground of late so hats some of the great and the good in the analyst and and South Africa, particularly with off to MasterCard for the return of its Fare Free regards to public transport consultancy community forecasting just how Goog- Monday’s promotion. le Wallet would transform customer behaviour. 14 COUNTRY SURVEY: SWEDEN Admittedly it is limited in scope: you have to be Just because Google is involved does not neces- 16 COUNTRY SURVEY: NORWAY in London, so that limits its geographical range; it sarily guarantee an immediate success. 16 COUNTRY SURVEY: FRANCE is also only available to MasterCard cardholders There were many who told the writer – over 20 COMMENT: GEMALTO using Apple Pay. two years ago by the way – just how significant William Tran of Gemalto writes So for the relatively chosen few users that have the launch of Zapp would be: with payments infra- about how the financial sector both a MasterCard and Apple Pay, the promotion can become more environmentally structure experts VocaLink in charge, what could sustainable and eco-friendly. This is limited but generous: three Mondays of free trav- go wrong? can range from biodegradable cards el across London’s transport network. Zapp may yet be a huge success and Apple Pay to moving more services online Whether visitors to London or regular commut- and Android Pay may well transform customer ers, the promotion is worth up to £28.10 on each behaviour: all I question is the timescale and speed of the three promotional Mondays. at which people may reduce their reliance on the Impressive, but limited: on a random quick straw old fashioned plastic in their wallets. < poll of the CI editorial desk, a grand total of one Douglas Blakey hand went up when the question was asked: so how [email protected] Editor: Douglas Blakey Sub-editor: Tom Langfield For more information on Timetric, visit Tel: +44 (0)20 7406 6523 our website at www.timetric.com. 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The Reporter: Patrick Brusnahan Email: [email protected] London Office contents of this publication, either in whole or Tel: +44 (0)20 7406 6526 71-73 Carter Lane, part, may not be reproduced, stored in a data Email: [email protected] Sales Executive: Alexander Koidis London, EC4V 5EQ retrieval system or transmitted by any form or Tel: +44 (0)20 3096 2586 means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Asia Editorial: Xiou Ann Lim Email: [email protected] recording or otherwise, without the prior Tel: +65 6383 4688 Asia Office permission of the publishers Email: [email protected] 1 Finlayson Green, #09-01 Customer Services: Singapore 049246 Group Publisher: Ameet Phadnis Tel: +44 (0) 20 3096 2636 Tel: +65 6383 4688 Tel: +44 (0)20 7406 6561 or +44 (0)20 3096 2622 Fax: +65 6383 5433 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] www.cardsinternational.com March 2016 y 1 CI 529.indd 1 29/02/2016 16:29:30 ANALYSIS: CREDIT CARDS Cards International Is there life beyond the credit card? In the UK and across the English speaking world, credit card payments remain prominent, totalling £14.6bn ($20.4bn) in May 2015 alone. Andrew Edem, Head of Engineering & Information Security Officer at the PPRO Group, considers the strengths of this market and whether this type of payment will last or not espite new innovative payment ments to seal the deal, could also be opening vent misuse of sensitive data by not collecting methods on the horizon, the popu- themselves up to financial and reputational it in the first place. larity of credit cards as an online damage. These consumer initiated payments mean D payment method shows no signs of For larger companies, being able to deal the shopper needs the merchant’s details but diminishing. with fraudulent transactions and data theft their details remain secure. With push pay- For those operating across international might not have a significant impact on their ments fraud is reduced, but there is a trade- online borders, getting to grips with and bottom line or long-term reputation, but for off between convenience and a more robust, fighting card fraud can be even more diffi- smaller ones, a fraudulent transaction or secure option.