We now have digital wallets, cloud wallets and mobile wallets. There’s the Google Wallet, PayPal wallet, ISIS, Serve, MCX, V.me, PayPass, Lemon, Pageonce, Wallaby, Passbook, LevelUp (see screenshot below) and 280 mobile payment startups listed on Angel List. NFC is coming, or is it? Why not just use the QR code? Or do we wait until EMV, Oct 2015? Does this make money or just add another layer of costs? Are we having fun yet?
Bottom line: With consumers carrying a powerful computer on their person, the days of the dumb mag-stripe are numbered. No one debates that. But what is a financial institution to do today?
That’s what we set out to answer in our latest report on Digital & Mobile Wallets.
If you are not a major credit-card issuer, you may choose to ignore the issue until the dust settles. That’s a valid strategy, but it won’t help you pick up market share during the upcoming market confusion.
We believe every bank and credit union with a mobile app should dip its toes into the wallet space now with some relatively low- to no-cost positioning moves, while waiting for the tech questions to be answered this year and next.
And if you are a big issuer, you have a very interesting few years in front of you. Do you build or buy? Which of the major wallets, if any, do you throw your marketing support behind? And how do you explain any of this to your shell-shocked customers who just want to pay their tab and get away from the cash register as fast as possible?
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About the report
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Digital & Mobile Wallets (link)
Payments in the smartphone eraAuthor: Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder
Published: 21 Feb 2013
Length: 36 pages, 10 tables, 12,000 words
Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$495 for others (here)
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Report excerpt:
First Trade Union Bank is teasing its LevelUp mobile wallet partnership on its homepage (19 Feb 2013).