Almost 28% of Total Smartphones Sold To End Users Will Be NFC-Enabled In 2015 Says New Report

April 19, 2011 03:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Telecom Insider / Vol. 3, No 1, Edition 4 - NFC-Enabled Smartphones to Account for 28% of Global Market by 2015" report to their offering.

“To trigger sales, equipment vendors will have to convince their users (mostly retailers) that the benefit from NFC-based services will outweigh the cost of investment”

After its initial launch in 2010, NFC-enabled smartphones will contribute to 28 percent of total smartphone sales to end users (250 million units) by 2015, according to a new report. NFC-Enabled Smartphones to Account for 28% of Global Market by 2015 discusses Pyramid's unique view on the future of NFC technology, with special emphasis on the short- and medium-term demand for NFC-enabled devices. The second part of the report provides an overview of the most recent NFC-related strategies of Google, VeriFone and Nokia.

"Mobile handsets that are NFC-capable will see skyrocketing sales in 2011 and 2012," says Stela Bokun, Mobile Devices Practice Leader at Pyramid. "These sales will be driven by the overwhelming supply of NFC-enabled smartphones that will hit the market in the next two years, as well as service providers' 'push' marketing strategies across the globe," she indicates.

As the NFC ecosystem rapidly evolves, there will be an abundant supply of other NFC devices, in addition to NFC-enabled handsets. "To trigger sales, equipment vendors will have to convince their users (mostly retailers) that the benefit from NFC-based services will outweigh the cost of investment," says Bokun.

"Over the next five years, as high-impact partnerships and profitable business models emerge, NFC-based services will become ubiquitous, consistent and secure," Bokun says. "That will ultimately create sustainable demand for NFC-enabled devices, including handsets. The current abundance of business models will eventually yield a healthy NFC ecosystem, despite the initial hiccups," she notes.

The majority of demand for NFC-enabled devices will come from Asia/Pacific, Western Europe and North America. "89 percent of the total NFC-enabled handset unit sell-through will come from these three regions in 2015," indicates Bokun. The high quality and convenience of the new NFC-based services, and the emergence of a healthy NFC ecosystem, will stimulate sustainable long-term demand for NFC-enabled handsets.

To get ahead of the game, mobile operators should create partnerships with credit cards and banks immediately. "Their solutions will be the most wanted at the outset," says Bokun. Followed by aggressive campaigns convincing end users that they stand to benefit from NFC-enabled services, without end-user buy-in, all efforts will be in vain.

43 Companies Mentioned - Some include:

• America Mvil
• Apple
• AT&T
• Barclays
• BBVA
• Bharti
• BlackBerry
• Casio
• China Unicom
• Citigroup
• Deutsche Telekom
• EMVCo LLC
• Fifth Media
• KT Corporation
• La Caixa
• LG
• MasterCard
• Orange
• Qtel Group
• RIM
• Sagem
• Samsung
• Sony Ericsson
• Telecom Italia
• Telefnica
• Telekom Austria Group
• Telenor
• Verizon
• Visa
• Vodafone

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/413156/global_telecom_ins

Source: Pyramid Research, Inc.

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Payments News Roundup April 1-15th

ONLINE AND MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEMS

NFC Data Introduces Encrypted NFC Reader/Writer and Viewer
The anticipated proliferation of Near Field Communication technology has prompted a fledging company to create a device that features contactless functionality consumers would use to make payments, store loyalty cards, and communicate with NFC-enabled smartphones and posters. NFC Data Inc.’s Sqwizz device is a key fob that looks similar to popular small MP3 music players. The front of the device features a light-emitting diode screen and scroll buttons to navigate a menu. The back has a secure PIN pad consumers would use as a security measure to access and use the device’s multiple areas.
Isis outlines US contactless m-payments pilot; Sprint preps rival service. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile say their mobile commerce joint venture will begin piloting its contactless payments technology in Salt Lake City in early 2012. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel, which is not part of the JV, hopes to beat its rival telcos to the punch by rolling out a similar service by the end of the year.

With Payfone, AmEx Bolsters Its Mobile-Payments Initiative. Displaying its newfound mobile-payments fervor for the second time in just over a fortnight, American Express Co. on Wednesday announced it was investing in a startup called Payfone Inc. and would integrate Payfones technology with its new Serve mobile-pay platform. Founded in 2008, New York City-based Payfone uses a consumers mobile-phone number to authorize purchases. Its system potentially could make it easier for AmEx to capture more payment transactions and expand abroad, especially where conventional payment cards are scarce.

Secure Vault Payments Will Go Mobile Later This Year with Bar Codes, Exec Says. The new application will rely on so-called Quick Response (QR) bar codes to interact with users handsets. Users will then be able to pay from their checking accounts using SVP, a system that lets consumers pay billers or merchants by authorizing automated clearing house transactions. Once the user has scanned a QR code for SVP displayed on a bill or on a screen, his handset will take him to an authentication page, says Brierley-Jones. This method mimics the existing SVP flow for e-commerce transactions, in which consumers selecting SVP at checkout are directed to a page where they enter their online-banking credentials and then authorize a transaction they want to do with an online merchant.

Visa Boosts Spending Visibility and Makes Compliance Easier for Businesses. Visa IntelliLink Compliance Management converts commercial card transaction data into information that card program managers at government agencies and private sector enterprises can use to minimize and deter commercial card misuse, such as using cards for personal expenses. A complement to the Visa IntelliLink product suite, this new service gives organizations a more detailed view of commercial payment program data, complementing existing card management and issuer reporting systems for a 360 degree view of commercial payment solution activity.

BANKS AND BANKING

La Caixa introduces contactless ATMs. Instead of inserting their cards in a slot in the ATMs, customers tap their contactless plastic against a reader and enter their PIN.

CREDIT, DEBIT, GIFT & PREPAID CARDS

Bridge2 Solutions Adds Virtual Gift Card Delivery Giftango Selected to Power Solution. Giftango Corporation, a virtual eGift card company, will power virtual gift card delivery for Bridge2 Solutions. Giftango fulfills virtual gift cards through incentive and loyalty channels.

How POS Cash Back on Debit Is Crimping ATM Transaction Growth. The Fed, which asked respondents for data for 2006 to 2009, says point-of-sale debit transactions, both of the signature and PIN variety, grew at a compounded annual rate of 14.8% in the study period. PIN debit, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of cash-back transactions at the point of sale, grew 15.6% to 14.5 billion transactions in 2009. About one in 38 total debit transactions included cash back.

Prepaid Programs Reshape Healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does allow health plans to issue payment cards to seniors for the purchase of OTC items at drug and grocery stores, but only if the retailer can identify the eligible items and limit the payment card to those items. Retailers have a significant interest in working with the health plans and in most cases have point-of-sale systems capable of identifying and netting out the eligible products, but until recently no such card solution existed.

E-Gift Cards Breathe Life Into Closed-Loop Market. In recent years, the open loop gift card market has grown swiftly while its closed loop counterpart has been stagnant. Last year, the Mercator Advisory group said the closed loop card market would grow at a compound annual rate of 26.7 percent over three years, but over the past few years that segment has seen only about 1 to 2 percent growth annually.

Wells Fargo to Pilot EMV Chip Technology for International Travelers. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is piloting the Visa Smart Card, which includes the traditional magnetic stripe along with EMV chip technology, helping increase card acceptance worldwide. The pilot is the industrys first chip program by a national bank and includes 15,000 Wells Fargo consumer credit card customers who travel internationally.

SECURITY BREACH

Legal eagles present a relatively soft target with troves of valuable corporate intelligence that cyberspies crave. Attackers find law firms an attractive and relatively soft target for gathering the intelligence they want on a new weapons system or software, for example. Firms that represent clients in mergers and acquisitions, or civil litigation, are getting hit, including when their clients are involved with deals involving Chinese companies.

Better Business Bureau Warns Of First Phishing Attacks In Wake Of Epsilon Breach. If you are a customer of one of the companies that had email data stolen, the BBB is warning you to be on the lookout for phishing emails. An email sent from a fake “Chase Bank,” one of the companies whose data was compromised, warns that “your account will be deactivated or deleted if you do not update your profile immediately.” The email instructs you to update your account by clicking on the link provided. “Although the email sounds urgent since it appears to be from your bank, do not click on the link and input your bank account number or social security number.

Phishing email titled ’2011 Recruitment Plan’ hit RSA user inboxes, stole user credentials — but no word on exactly what the attackers grabbed. Turns out the targeted attack that exposed RSA’s SecurID technology started with one of the oldest tricks in the book: a phishing email with an infected attachment, according to new details revealed today by RSA and security analysts.

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Acculynk's Internet PIN Debit Solution Goes Live with JetPay

April 19, 2011 09:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

JetPay Now Offers PaySecure Internet PIN Debit

Acculynk and JetPay go-live with PaySecure, bringing the convenience and security of Internet PIN Debit to Ecommerce merchants

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JetPay, LLC, and Acculynk announced today that PaySecure^® is now available on the JetPay payment platform. JetPay, a Dallas-based payment services provider and developer of JetPay™, a suite of payment transaction processing solutions, and Acculynk, the only provider of a software service for PIN debit payments on the Internet, PaySecure, signed a partnership in Q4 of 2010 to offer PaySecure to existing JetPay merchants and Ecommerce merchants with other acquirers that do not currently offer PaySecure.

“JetPay is a nimble, innovative acquirer and our goal was to make PaySecure available on their payment platform as quickly as possible”

“JetPay is a nimble, innovative acquirer and our goal was to make PaySecure available on their payment platform as quickly as possible,” said Ashish Bahl, CEO of Acculynk. “We are pleased at how quickly they have completed the implementation and commercially rolled out PaySecure.”

“We started pre-selling PaySecure to our merchant base and even new merchant prospects earlier this year,” said Trent Voigt, Chairman of JetPay. “The response was extremely positive and resulted in us having customers ready to go with PaySecure as soon as it was live on our platform.”

Todd Fuller, EVP of Business Development adds, “This innovative solution is allowing JetPay to not only service our large Ecommerce portfolio, but also look to new niche markets which might have historically been difficult or unable to penetrate.”

Acculynk partners with major merchant acquirers, such as JetPay, to make the product available to their installed merchant base. In cases where the acquirer does not currently offer PaySecure, the product can be leveraged as a hook product for new business.

“Our goal certainly would be to use PaySecure to attract merchants to our platform, whether it is for PaySecure transactions only or for their entire card business,” said Voigt. “It’s a very simple process for new merchants to sign with us for either option.”

Acculynk continues to bring new functionality to PaySecure, announcing the availability of the product on mobile phones in January and extending PaySecure to applications outside of traditional Internet PIN debit, including P2P transfers.

About JetPay, LLC

JetPay, LLC is a payment processing company comprised of industry specialists fully conversant in POS and order-entry software applications, systems integration, data networking, and communications technologies. Developer and manager of its own UNIX-based platform, JetPay™ provides credit card authorization, capture, and a full menu of related services designed to handle payment processing of ‘high speed need’ clients. JetPay, LLC maintains a business development and account support center in Dallas, focusing on meeting the payments acceptance needs of credit card merchants across the globe.

About Acculynk

Acculynk secures online transactions with a suite of software-only services backed by a patented authentication and encryption framework that provides greater security for issuers, EFT networks, merchants and payment processors. Acculynk has introduced the first product for Internet PIN debit payments, PaySecure^®, which utilizes a graphical PIN-pad for the secure entry of a consumer’s PIN. PaySecure is currently enabled on over 3,000 merchant websites. Acculynk has partnerships with 9 EFT networks to process PaySecure transactions and with six leading payment processors to distribute the product. Visit http://www.acculynk.com.

Contacts

Acculynk
Danielle Duclos, 678-894-7013
Director of Marketing
press@acculynk.com
JetPay
Todd Fuller, 972-503-8900, ext. 158
EVP Business Development
tfuller@jetpay.com

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• NFC: Under-Hyped, Ready to Over-Deliver (nytimes.com)

Veracity Payment Solutions Named One of the Top Merchant Acquirers in the U.S. for 2010 by the Nilson Report

ATLANTA, April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Veracity Payment Solutions, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, announced today that it has been named as one of the "Top U.S. Acquirers" by the Nilson Report, a leading publication covering payment systems worldwide. The list was published in Issue # 967, ranking 94 of the largest portfolios of merchant card processing based on purchased volume generated by Visa® and MasterCard® signature based credit and debit cards.  

With more than 5,000 independent credit card processing entities in the U.S. alone, Veracity was ranked 66, processing over 1.4 billion and approximately 15 million in transactions that represents more than 9,400 merchant locations nationwide.

"This is the third year Veracity Payment Solutions has been listed in the Nilson Report," commented Joseph P. Cohane, CEO of Veracity Payment Solutions. "With the size and strength of our existing operations, we are well-positioned to expand into new markets and service lines. We have remained steadfast to our core principles and will continue to solidify our position in the industry."  

About Veracity Payment Solutions

Veracity Payment Solutions is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with customer operations and sales services in Aiken, South Carolina, Moline, Illinois and Honolulu, Hawaii. Veracity serves the merchant community, trade associations, community banks and Affinity partners by offering full service point-of-sale solutions, web-based reporting and management tools. Veracity's key focus is to deliver quality service to our customers and ensure price transparency and clarity in every aspect of the merchant services programs we provide. Veracity is also the winner of the 2010 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics-Category II, with the Better Business Bureau of Metro Atlanta. Visit www.veracitypayments.com for more information.      

SOURCE Veracity Payment Solutions