If you are in the business of facilitating payment transaction you will know details of buyers and sellers. Therefore the data will be useful for cross selling. Key to these transactions will be the correct identity of the parties plus their credit standing, thus credit bureaus will be keen to serve you.
People want convenience and low cost transactions. Take current bank fees for foreign transactions which are prohibitive for most of the consumers. Smart phones combined with low cost payment systems provide convenience and low cost, thus it will be important for banks to enable customers to pay for goods and services with their smartphones.
Many technology and telecoms groups are hoping to help banks with their digital strategy. Meanwhile retailers, too, are having to adapt to the blurring of online and high street, as shoppers use their phones to find and purchase goods. “This is a shift to a world beyond plastic where the smartphone becomes the platform,” says Marion King, president for UK and Ireland at MasterCard. “The infrastructure is different around the world, [but] people just want convenience.”
However, the rapidity of growth of mobile payments has also caused the market to fragment, as the various groups that own different parts of the technology, banking or retail elements have looked to grab a share of the market. “It’s a mess, isn’t it,” says David Sear, managing director of Weve, a company set up to develop mobile commerce and advertising initiatives on behalf of Vodafone, O2 and EE in the UK.
Source: Financial Times
