As near field communication begins to make inroads in the payments market, the Smart Card Alliance has decided to make this new technology part of one of one of its industry councils. The Contactless Payments Council has thus been renamed the Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.
“Consumers, mobile carriers, banks and technology providers are all clamoring to learn more about proximity mobile payments,” said Randy Vanderhoof, the alliance’s executive director. “The Contactless and Mobile Payments Council has quickly become a primary educational resource, delivering extensive materials on what the technology is, how it works, what implementation methods are available, and what the best practices are,”
Conducting and publishing research on how merchants, consumers, financial issuers, mobile operators and technology providers view contactless and mobile payments was the top priority for the Council last year.
The Council’s Mobile Payments Work Group published “Proximity Mobile Payments Business Scenarios: Research Report on Stakeholder Perspectives.” This research found that 86% of industry stakeholders believe NFC-based proximity mobile payments will be adopted, and it will happen with a “collaboration model,” bringing together banks, mobile operators, merchants, handset manufacturers and other service providers. The report is a follow-up to the white paper also published last year, “Proximity Mobile Payments: Leveraging NFC and the Contactless Financial Payments Infrastructure.”
“The Council’s priority is to provide contactless and mobile payment educational resources that will be most beneficial to the industry,” said newly-elected Chair Deborah Baxley, IBM.
The Contactless and Mobile Payments Council is made up of more than 120 individuals from 48 organizations, including card issuers, payment brands, merchants, financial payment processors, terminal vendors, card manufacturers, chip vendors, systems integrators/consultants, and personalization bureaus. New officers and steering committee were elected in July.
Besides Baxley, other new officers include John Suchanec, Bank of America, vice chair, and Mohammad Khan, ViVOtech, secretary. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/contactlessnews-4.gif)
