07 March 2014
Mobile payments are destined for the mainstream, but the payment method still probably has another five to 10 years before it becomes as integrated into the ecosystems as credit cards or checks.
And over the course of that time, mobile systems will become cheaper to use and operate, and more secure, according to Bill Mann, senior vice president of digital payment security at CA Technologies. Moreover, leadership in the marketplace is still up for grabs, meaning mobile payments likely will evolve under the influence of many players, Mann told Jeff Green, PYMNTS.com vice president of digital media, in a recent podcast interview.
(Jump to: 5:01)“From a payments point of view, it’s going to employ a number of different technologies, he said. “I think the jury is out at the moment in terms of which technology is gonna supersede one. I believe at the moment, there’s going to be a lot of these technologies that are banked on. So you’re gonna see NFC, you’re gonna see Bluetooth, and you’re gonna see barcodes.”
Ease of use, security key mobile drivers
What will separate out technologies going forward is how easy they are to use, and how well data transfers on them can be secured, Mann said.
The security of online purchases is going to be particularly important going forward, as physical card transactions are increasingly secured by technology like EMV, Mann said. With one avenue largely closed off, hackers will be increasingly drawn toward the easier target of cardless mobile payments, he added.
(Jump to: 13:20) “At the moment, if we think that fraud is high when we hear of these cases in the news, we haven’t seen anything yet,” Mann said. “Because at the moment, the fraudsters are basically doing the easy thing, which is attacking cards that are used in the grocery stores, right? When that’s kind of closed off, which is what is going to happen when EMV is fully deployed, fraud is going to move to the online world. And if we use Europe as a data point, we are going to be tenfold-more impacted because we are bigger – we’re a bigger country, and there are going to be more ecommerce transactions.”
Convenience the ‘Holy Grail’
As important as secure transactions are, however, Mann says the real “Holy Grail” in mobile payments are transactions that are seamlessly convenient. This means both that mobile-payment solutions work under a variety of conditions, some of which don’t include easy access to wireless networks. It also requires technology smart enough to know when to interrupt a fraudulent transaction but also push legitimate ones through quickly and easily.
(Jump to 14:46)“Security is part of the solution; it’s gotta be there, but it has to be behind the scenes,” he said. “It’s kind of the way I described our implementation of 3-D Secure. We implement it, but we don’t go impacting the user experience because once you impact the user experience, they don’t buy, they’re unhappy and the whole ecosystem system, which is trying to spur and increase spending, doesn’t happen.” “It’s about both making purchasing very, very convenient, but also innovating the whole buying experience,” Mann said.
Mann will be a panelist at BAI Payments Connect taking place on March 10 to 12. CA Technologies will be at booths 713 and 16.
To hear the complete interview with Mann, listen to the full podcast by clicking below.
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