Cards Asia 2011 to Showcase a Wide Spectrum of Payments Innovation and Applications

Singapore, Mar 15, 2011 - (ACN Newswire) - Smart payments and smart technologies will take centre stage at Cards Asia 2011 on 13-15 April 2011 at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. Amidst a buoyant Asian economy, the region's no. 1 cards show expects to attract 8,000 attendees across traditional and new sectors, including banking and financial, telco, retail, government, healthcare, transport and near field communication. Co-located with Cards Asia are seven synergistic events, namely, Prepaid Cards World Asia, RFID World Asia, Near Field Communication (NFC) World Asia, Mobile Money World Asia, Retail World Asia, and the inaugural Digital ID World Asia and Transport Ticketing World Asia.

According to independent smart card industry organisation, Asia Pacific Smart Card Association (APSCA), smart card technology continues to become increasingly pervasive. Some of the regional developments in the last two years include governments' increased smart card rollout for e-government services such as chip-based passports and visas, bank payments being migrated to adopt the EMV standard enabling debit and credit card transactions, digital identification, and mobile payments, or m-payments, which analysts forecast to be US3.6 billion-worth in 2015.


Organised by Terrapinn, the three-day event is bustling with five powered-up conferences to be participated by 700 delegates, over 40 free educational on-floor seminars and an exhibition area spanning 8,000 sqm showcase of the latest in smart technologies. Participants will hear from over 100 esteemed and most sought-after speakers from industries such as banks, telcos, retail and transport.


Richard Ireland, Chief Executive Officer, Terrapinn Asia Pacific: "Cards Asia pioneered the cards and payments innovation show 16 years ago. It has since evolved to cover the broadest spectrum of smart payments and smart technologies today. With the rebound in the Asian economy and our prolific three-day agenda, we expect top-notch attendance from all over the region and outside, and an even more dynamic showcase of innovations and applications which is truly becoming of a 'smart cards revolution'."


Smart Technology Trends as Viewed by Industry Players


Silas Brown, Managing Director, Collis: "In the digital and virtual world, there is steady development from e-Commerce to m-Commerce or mobile commerce. In the real/physical world, the face of proximity payments is shifting from contactless cards to near field communications. Many people see mobile phones as an 'extension of the internet into consumers' pockets. Mobile phones are rapidly becoming a platform for offering all sorts of value-added applications such as banking, ticketing, loyalty and advertising."


Andrew Phay, Vice President and Head of Retail, Wincor Nixdorf, Asia Pacific: "Despite worldwide attempts to move towards cashless societies, nine out of 10 transactions continue to be made in cash globally and the cost of handling notes and coins has reached US$300 billion, according to analysis by consultants McKinsey and Wincor Nixdorf. Cash in circulation continues to rise in mature and developing economies despite the use of electronic payments, according to a variety of central bank data. Retailers suffer the most from the entire cash chain and have to grapple with other cash-related issues such as security, transparency and the continued use of old-fashioned manual processes."


Elias Ghanem, General Manager for Southeast Asia and India, PayPal: "Online retail in Asia Pacific continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, with regional sales of US$150 billion in 2010 expected to grow to US$250 billion in 2012, as Asian consumers are spending more time researching and identifying products online and through their web enabled mobile devices. Fuelled by the popularity and ultimate convenience of smartphones and tablets, mobile shopping are luring consumers to buy anytime and anywhere. M-commerce across the region will grow even faster than online retail sales, from US$43 billion in 2010 to US$139 billion in 2012. With over 100 million smartphones expected to be sold in Asia Pacific this year, m-commerce is a trend that retailers must act quickly on or else risk losing sales in their traditional channels. It will become increasingly important for retailers to offer a range of fast, secure payment solutions across multiple touch points, especially mobile devices."




About Terrapinn


Terrapinn is a Business to Business media company. Our products are trade exhibitions, conferences, training courses and print publications. For more information, please visit: www.terrapinn.com.


Media Contact:


EASTWEST PR for Terrapinn
Melinda Ilagan / Laurent Decosse
Tel: 65.6222.0306
Email: terrapinn@eastwestpr.com


Terrapinn Marketing:


Christine Lee,
Marketing Manager
Tel: 65.6322.2301
Email: christine.lee@terrapinn.com




Mar 15, 2011
Topic: Trade Show or Conference
Sectors: Credit Cards
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From the Asia Corporate News Network 

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