A series of Web-based seminars beginning Sept. 25 and co-sponsored by the Smart Card Alliance and the Electronic Transactions Association will feature the use of mobile phones for banking and payments. The first session with an NFC focus, will last 90 minutes with three other webinars covering various areas of smart card payments scheduled for later this year and early 2009.
“As the organization that represents the merchant acquirers of the world, ETA is at the core of the payments industry, and therefore an ideal partner for this educational webinar series,” said Randy Vanderhoof, the alliance’s executive director. “This series will address all the questions that are top of mind for the important acquirer segment, as well as other industry stakeholders.”
“Smart card technology has long played an important role in the payments industry, and with recent developments in contactless, mobile and NFC, its importance is continuing to grow,” said Carla Balakgie, CEO of ETA, an international trade association representing companies which offer electronic transaction processing products and services. “Partnering with the Smart Card Alliance helps us to meet our goal of advancing the merchant acquirer profession by providing educational resources such as this webinar series.”
The first webinar, “Smart Cards in Mobile Payment/Near Field Communications (NFC),” will take place Sept. 25 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. Registration is available at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-events-web-seminars.
This webinar will answer these questions:
- What is the market outlook for mobile commerce and mobile payments?
- What is NFC? What are NFC applications and how is the technology used for proximity mobile payments?
- Who are the stakeholders in the mobile payments ecosystem and what are likely proximity mobile payments business models?
- What merchant infrastructure is needed for proximity mobile payments?
- What are key hurdles to widespread use and acceptance of NFC-enabled mobile payments?
- What should acquirers and merchants do next?
Speakers scheduled include Vanderhoof; Deborah Baxley, partner, IBM Global Services, and chair of the Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council; and Charles Walton, EVP payments, INSIDE Contactless and former co-chair of the alliance’s Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.
Future webinars in the series are: “Fundamentals of Smart Cards for Payments” Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. ET; “Smart Card Implementation” Jan. 13, 2009 at 1 p.m. ET; and “Smart Cards and Payment Security” Feb. 3, 2009 at 1 p.m. ET. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/contactlessnews-4.gif)
