CARTES Paris Showcases Payments Industry’s Diversification (Nov. 6, 2014)
Attendees at the 29th gathering of CARTES, concluding today in Paris, noticed the event’s growing emphasis on mobile payments, as well as another striking feature of the show—drawing 20,000 attendees from 140 countries—is the diversity of products and business models mobile payments support. “The industry is moving gradually from hardware to software and from software to services, simultaneously reaching an increasingly diverse range of customers,” Isabelle Alfano, exhibition director, tells Paybefore.
Key themes at CARTES included the effect of Apple Pay on the global payments marketplace, the future of contactless payments and the potential for host card emulation (HCE) to accelerate banks’ development of proprietary mobile banking and payment services. Heavy participation at CARTES from card manufacturers, as well as specialized services for card personalization and fulfillment, also underscored the fact that the world’s 6 billion physical cards in circulation aren’t going away anytime soon. “We’re watching mobile payments with interest, but we’re betting heavily on ongoing demand for physical cards, both in everyday payments and gift cards,” Wally Lowe, CEO of Vero Beach, Fla.-based Cross-Core Technology, a card personalization firm, tells Paybefore.
CARTES attendees from banks in all markets are keenly interested in exploring HCE as a core approach to developing mobile banking and payment technologies by storing card credentials in the cloud instead of on a SIM card, John Ekers, global chief information officer for ABnote, tells Paybefore. “With HCE, banks can finally create a solid business case for mobile services without worrying about the cost and issues surrounding SIM cards,” he notes.
It’s no surprise that payments industry participants at CARTES from around the world were buzzing about Apple Pay and how it may drive consumer demand for more streamlined, secure payments, said Ian Hermon, product marketing manager at Thales e-Security Inc. “Because of Apple Pay and its endorsement of NFC for convenience and security, many card issuers will now be looking seriously at issuing contactless cards, and one side effect we’re likely to see is a lot more activity around dual-interface payment cards that work in both contact chip and tap-and-pay modes,” he predicts.
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