MasterCard Sets Sights on the Next Billion Consumers as It Unleashes the Future of Mobile Payments

February 29, 2012 03:00 AM Eastern Time 

The Vision is Mobile and is Delivered Through Partnerships and Innovation

Mobile World Congress 2012

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasterCard has continued its mobile payment leadership and outlined its vision on how to reach the next billion consumers through mobile innovation and partnerships.

At a press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona led by its global head of mobile Mung Ki Woo, MasterCard and leading mobile partners Comviva, Intel, iZettle, Santander and Turkcell unveiled a vision for the future of mobile payments. Together, they outlined their shared vision that the future of reaching the next billion consumers through the mobile channel is fueled by collaboration and innovation in a collective effort by all the players in the ecosystem including technology providers, mobile network operators and financial institutions. MasterCard also used the world’s largest mobile event to celebrate a number of new mobile partnerships and initiatives from around the globe, including:

• The unveiling of Wanda, a joint venture between Telefónica and MasterCard – a new corporate and consumer brand designed to provide mobile payment solutions to over 87 million Movistar customers in its Latin American markets. These mobile payment services will be linked to a mobile wallet or prepaid account that will allow for money transfers, mobile airtime reload, bill payment and retail purchases, among other services. The mobile wallet and prepaid accounts will be available anytime, anywhere in the world.
• A partnership with BOKU, Inc.that will enhance the shopping experience for consumers, allowing them to make payments, receive discounts and targeted offers, and monitor spending – all via their mobile phones anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Offered through a mobile subscriber’s mobile network operator (MNO), BOKU Accounts with MasterCard Prepaid gives consumers a convenient way to pay while on the go.
• The new MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program, launched with its initial partners Comviva, Sybase 365 and Utiba,designed to help more than 2.5 billion financially-underserved consumers worldwide gain access to formal financial services through their mobile phones.

And today we are excited to celebrate our latest industry honor received from the GSMA:

• Etisalat, MasterCard and Oberthur Technologies won the Best Mobile Money Innovation Award at the 17^th Annual Global Mobile Awards announced during Mobile World Congress. This is a significant achievement in recognition of our collective work to launch Near Field Communication (NFC) technology powered payments in the United Arab Emirates.

Concluding the press gathering, Mung Ki Wu noted, “Mobile World Congress 2012 provided MasterCard with a unique opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the leading players in the mobile industry and outline our shared vision for the future. Mobile presents a significant opportunity to bring commerce and banking into the hands of consumers around the world. Through an innovative approach to mobile commerce, MasterCard and its partners are helping unlock the full potential of mobile commerce and bring billions of consumers into a world beyond cash”.

About MasterCard

MasterCard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a global payments and technology company. It operates the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MasterCardNews, join the conversation on The Heart of Commerce Blog and subscribe for the latest news.

Gemalto and Sony Establish Global Agreement for FeliCa / Near Field Communication Technology

Mobile World Congress 2012

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in Digital Security, and Sony Corporation have established an agreement to provide FeliCa / Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions globally. Under the agreement, Gemalto will incorporate FeliCa software technology into its UpTeq NFC SIM product lineup starting in 2012, offering mobile operators and service providers a more comprehensive range of mobile NFC services globally. The addition of FeliCa makes Gemalto’sUpTeq NFC SIM the secure element that can embed the world’s broadest set of applications, and with the highest level of privacy.

“Gemalto’s UpTeq NFC SIM is set to trigger the mass deployment of mobile NFC services now, while providing operators the flexibility to expand their offer in the longer term.”

Gemalto will expand its UICC solutions with FeliCa technology to complement its existing NFC applications portfolio. UpTeq NFC SIM enables mobile operators to securely install additional applications from new service providers over time, even after issuance to end users. Equipping handsets today with NFC will smooth the adoption of the burgeoning Mobile Financial Services markets in Asia and around the world.

FeliCa is a contactless technology that is widely deployed in Asia for public transportation, access management, event ticketing, customer loyalty programs and micropayments. As of March 2011, there were over 516 million units of FeliCa IC Chips worldwide, incorporated in 346 million cards and 170 million mobile phones.

NFC is a short-range wireless communication technology to exchange data among various devices with various usages. This technology includes international standard ISO/IEC 14443 Type A/B as well as Type F technology compliant with ISO/IEC 18092 - NFC-IP1.

“In a robust industry landscape where various contactless solutions are quickly converging, we believe that Gemalto is well positioned to deliver FeliCa technology – they are involved in more than 45 NFC projects globally, well ahead of their peers,” commented Izumi Kawanishi, Senior General Manager of the FeliCa Business Division, at Sony Corporation. “Through this agreement, we aim to collaborate closely with Gemalto to develop globally compliant solutions for the growing NFC market.”

“With FeliCa’s proven commercial adoption particularly in the Asian markets, we strongly believe that our agreement with Sony will enable Gemalto to build the foundation for significant expansion for both companies at a global scale,” added Tan Teck-Lee, Chief Innovation & Technology Officer and Asia President of Gemalto. “Gemalto’s UpTeq NFC SIM is set to trigger the mass deployment of mobile NFC services now, while providing operators the flexibility to expand their offer in the longer term.”

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2010 annual revenues of €1.9 billion and over 10,000 employees operating out of 87 offices and 13 Research & Development centers in 45 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. Billions of people worldwide increasingly want the freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure. Gemalto delivers on the growing demands for personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, e-healthcare and e-government services. Gemalto does this by providing secure software, a wide range of secure personal devices, and managed services to wireless operators, banks, enterprises and government agencies.

Gemalto is the world leader for electronic passports and identity cards, two-factor authentication devices for online protection, smart credit/debit and contactless payment cards, as well as subscriber identification modules (SIM) and universal integrated circuit cards (UICC) in mobile phones. Also, in the emerging machine-to-machine applications Gemalto is a leading supplier of wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM). To operate these solutions and remotely manage the software and confidential data contained in the secure devices Gemalto also provides server platforms, consulting, training, and managed services to help its customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the Company is poised to thrive over the coming years.
For more information visit www.gemalto.com, www.justaskgemalto.com, blog.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

About Sony Corporation

Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading electronics and entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $87 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011.
Sony Global Web Site: http://www.sony.net/
FeliCa Web Site: http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/

Gemalto Launches Highly Reliable, Next Gen-Ready Wireless Connectivity Solution for M2M, NFC and 4G LTE Services

End-to-end solution enables 100% coverage of operators’ subscriber base and provides a highly reliable environment for mission critical applications

Mobile World Congress 2012

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, announces the launch of the Advanced Connectivity offer, an end-to-end solution allowing 100% success rate for the download and activation of mission critical applications including M2M, NFC and streaming multimedia content over LTE networks. Advanced Connectivity combines Gemalto’s Advanced Over-the-Air (OTA) platform and Advanced Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICC) fitted with automatic updating¹. The carrier grade efficiency of the Gemalto OTA platform has already been field-proven through a number of high-profile commercial LTE deployments, notably with NTT Docomo in Japan, as well as Metro PCS and Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

“Now is the right time for upgrading to the next generation solutions that will put any operator a step ahead in offering subscribers the many fantastic new services and applications from day one, ensuring immediate service uptake.”

With LTE rollouts well underway and billions of connected devices forecast to be deployed in the near future, the wireless ecosystem is changing and this creates tremendous opportunities for mobile network operators to serve or act as service providers. In order to better meet the high level of service delivery required for these growth opportunities, mobile operators demand a more secure infrastructure, the ability to instantly reach 100% of their subscriber base and a highly reliable mission critical environment.

More importantly, mobile operators can now take advantage of subscribers’ natural renewal rhythm by anticipating the massive rollout of 4G and NFC services, and reduce their total cost of deployment with an early migration strategy to Gemalto’s Advanced UICC, ahead of time. Advanced Connectivity is fully compatible with existing networks and can hence be implemented as part of or ahead of an LTE roll-out.

“4G LTE networks change the playing field for the delivery of mobile service and implementing Advanced Connectivity prepares our customers for delivering on the new consumer demands in a timely manner,” commented Jean-François Schreiber, Senior Vice President of Mobile Solutions and Services at Gemalto. “Now is the right time for upgrading to the next generation solutions that will put any operator a step ahead in offering subscribers the many fantastic new services and applications from day one, ensuring immediate service uptake.”

¹The solution allows for automatic UICC update to enable 100% success rate and an always up-to-date UICC

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2010 annual revenues of €1.9 billion and over 10,000 employees operating out of 87 offices and 13 Research & Development centers in 45 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. Billions of people worldwide increasingly want the freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure. Gemalto delivers on the growing demands for personal mobile services, identity protection, payment security, authenticated online services, cloud computing access, modern transportation, e-healthcare and e-government services. Gemalto does this by providing secure software, a wide range of secure personal devices, and managed services to wireless operators, banks, enterprises and government agencies.

Gemalto is the world leader for electronic passports and identity cards, two-factor authentication devices for online protection, smart credit/debit and contactless payment cards, as well as subscriber identification modules (SIM) and universal integrated circuit cards (UICC) in mobile phones. Also, in the emerging machine-to-machine applications Gemalto is a leading supplier of wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM). To operate these solutions and remotely manage the software and confidential data contained in the secure devices Gemalto also provides server platforms, consulting, training, and managed services to help its customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the Company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information visit www.gemalto.com, www.justaskgemalto.com, blog.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

Oberthur Technologies to Acquire MoreMagic, a Leading Mobile Money Solution Provider

NANTERRE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oberthur Technologies, a leading provider of security and identification solutions and services based on smart card technologies, entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire MoreMagic Solutions, a leading mobile financial services solutions provider, based in Waltham, MA.

“The acquisition of MoreMagic is fully in line with our growth strategy notably in our Solutions business and more specifically in the NFC eco-system. The complementarities between our respective technological bricks and Oberthur Technologies’ TSM expertise will perfectly fit the needs of our clients, in both mature and developing countries.”

On February 28^th, 2012, Oberthur Technologies entered into an exclusive agreement with MoreMagic supported by its major shareholders including Battery Ventures and Vision Capital.

Today, the mobile phone increasingly represents a cost-effective solution to increase access to commerce and financial services both in the developed world and in the emerging markets. Mobile Money services offer secure and convenient means for banked and unbanked people to pay, send and receive money, everywhere at any time. The arrival of NFC technology will foster even more these services.

Over the last years, Oberthur Technologies has actively engaged in both NFC and Mobile Money solutions, and recently won a key reference in Czech Republic in technological partnership with MoreMagic.

Combined, the technological capabilities of Oberthur Technologies and MoreMagic will create a comprehensive mobile money services suite including secured end-to-end payment and money transfer services helping mobile operators and financial institutions to offer innovative financial services in mobility such as proximity, remote payment and mobile banking.

Xavier Drilhon, CEO of Oberthur Technologies: “The acquisition of MoreMagic is fully in line with our growth strategy notably in our Solutions business and more specifically in the NFC eco-system. The complementarities between our respective technological bricks and Oberthur Technologies’ TSM expertise will perfectly fit the needs of our clients, in both mature and developing countries.”

Pankaj Gulati, CEO of MoreMagic: “For MoreMagic, its employees and customers this is a great opportunity to create and utilize end-to-end, secure, turn-key solutions and cloud based services in the mobile financial services space. Oberthur Technologies’ global footprint and their leadership and commitment to the mobile payments space are very important for us. This new step in our collaboration is the natural evolution of an already successful partnership.”

This acquisition remains subject to the consultation of employees work council and other customary approvals, including from relevant antitrust authorities.

Rutberg & Company acted as exclusive financial advisor to MoreMagic on this transaction.

About Oberthur Technologies

Oberthur Technologies is a world leader in the field of secure technologies: systems development, solutions and services for smart cards (payment cards, SIM cards, access cards, NFC…) and for secure identity documents, traditional and electronic (identity card, passport, health care card). Created in 1984, Oberthur Technologies employs 5,700 employees. With 50 sales offices across 5 continents, Oberthur Technologies’ international network serves clients in 140 countries.

For more information: www.oberthur.com

About MoreMagic Solutions

With deployments in more than 30 countries worldwide, MoreMagic Solutions offers mobile payment solutions to mobile operators, financial institutions, content providers, and distributors, enabling consumers to purchase goods and services on demand using a mobile phone, POS, or web. MoreMagic’s high-throughput payments engine (m:Broker^TM) and the portfolio of pre-packaged mobile commerce applications in MagicSuite^TM, enable revenue-generating services, including mobile recharge, domestic and international mobile money transfer, mobile banking and mobile payments. MagicHub^TM, MoreMagic’s global value exchange which is connected to a worldwide distributor network, brings mobile operator branded services to out-of-country customers, enabling communications with relatives back home, and increased usage on mobile networks worldwide.

For more information: www.moremagic.com

Mobile World Congress 2012 - Day Three

Latest show news Google: “There will be an Android in every pocket” Operators call for sub-$50 smartphones in emerging markets Operators agree mobile content must pay its way Samsung aims to become top three LTE network vendor Intel gets deeper inside mobile   _____________________________________________ Google: “There will be an Android in every pocket” Google’s Eric Schmidt yesterday called for the technology community to build-out connectivity to the estimated 5 billion of the world’s population who had “never done a Google search” – while at the same time announcing plans to bring the firm’s Chrome and Android units closer together. In his third visit to Congress in as many years, Google’s executive chairman warned that a new digital divide will emerge if the opportunities and freedoms offered by the Internet were not extended to all. He claimed a new technological “middle class” is emerging that will play a decisive role in changing society. READ MORE » _____________________________________________ Operators call for sub-$50 smartphones in emerging markets The CEOs of Bharti Airtel, VimpelCom and Telefónica Latin America have called for the industry to drive down the cost of smartphones to trigger the greater use of mobile data.  Speaking during yesterday’s keynote session, Sunil Mittal, chairman and MD of Bharti Airtel, said that the cost of smartphones must start to fall and come much closer to the price of feature phones seen today in India.  “The difficulty we have moving forward to the next business model is the lack of a cheap smartphone,” said Mittal. “A US$50 device would dramatically alter the landscape.” READ MORE » Operators agree mobile content must pay its way Mobile operator execs said the industry needs to change user perceptions and the way mobile content is paid for after giving too much away in the past. “We have to come to terms with the reality that we may have spoiled consumers by giving things away too fast. And that’s not an easy thing to come back from,” said Telefonica Latin America chairman and CEO Santiago Fernández Valbuena in Tuesday’s keynote. Bharti Airtel chairman and MD Sunil Mittal noted that this practice has led to operators being viewed as the “bad gatekeepers” when services don’t meet expectations. READ MORE » _____________________________________________ Samsung aims to become top three LTE network vendor Samsung has set out its long-term goal for LTE, saying its target is to be one of the top three global infrastructure vendors in this market in 2013. By 2015 the South Korean vendor is targeting a top three spot within the entire mobile infrastructure market, now that it has finally added GSM to its product mix. READ MORE » _____________________________________________ Intel gets deeper inside mobile    Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, chose Mobile World Congress to announce a string of new partnerships for the Medfield platform, aimed at the mobile device market. In addition to Orange, which unveiled Europe’s first Intel-powered smartphone on Monday using the Atom Z2460 chip, Otellini announced deals with Visa and ZTE in a press conference held Monday evening. Lava International, a young handset company targeting the fast-growing Indian market, is also to use Intel Atom processors for its first move into smartphones.  READ MORE »

TSYS Announces .10 cent First-Quarter 2012 Dividend

Image via CrunchBase

February 28, 2012 04:00 PM Eastern Time 

COLUMBUS, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TSYS (NYSE: TSS) today announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share on TSYS common stock, payable April 2, 2012, to TSYS shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 22, 2012.

About TSYS

TSYS (NYSE: TSS) is reshaping a new era in digital commerce, connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses and governments. Through unmatched customer service and industry insight, TSYS creates a better experience for buyers and sellers, supporting cross-border payments in more than 80 countries. Offering merchant payment-acceptance solutions as well as services in credit, debit, prepaid, mobile, chip, healthcare, installments, money transfer and more, TSYS makes it possible for those in the global marketplace to conduct safe and secure electronic transactions with trust and convenience.

TSYS’ headquarters are located in Columbus, Georgia, with local offices spread across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. TSYS provides services to more than half of the top 20 international banks. For more information, please visit us at www.tsys.com.

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Visa Teams with Oberthur for Trusted Service Manager

Image via Wikipedia

• Visa teams with Oberthur for TSM - 22 hours ago
• Using PKI for physical access control - 23 hours ago
• Chase taps Gemalto for trusted service manager - 23 hours ago
• Capital One, Chase, Barclaycard team with Isis - 23 hours ago
• Gemalto unveils NFC SIM vault - 23 hours ago

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• Chase picks Gemalto for NFC (nfcdata.com)
• Chase taps Gemalto for trusted service manager (nfcdata.com)