Viewing mobile payments strategy holistically

As the one year anniversary of Apple Pay approaches, banks have to make more decisions about their mobile payments strategy. Android Pay launched in the US a few days ago, and Samsung Pay is expected to be available there soon as well. Should a bank just stick with Apple Pay or enable their cards with all the "pays?" Should they consider alternative options, such as their own HCE-based, or depending on the market, even SIM-based NFC solutions? The answer is that banks have to view their mobile payments strategy holistically. Apple Pay, good as it is, is only available for the latest iOS devices, and only for in-store and in-app payments. Android ecosystem offers more choice: Android Pay, Samsung Pay, HCE and SIM for NFC, but what about P2P and other payments? Barclays in the UK announced this week that it will be launching its own version of mobile payments for Android-based phones. Barclays was a notable absentee when Apple Pay launched in the UK, and are forging ahead with Pingit and bPay wearables. As a result, some view this latest move as yet another indication that the bank "appears to be adopting a go-it-alone strategy with its roll-out of mobile payments, preferring to retain the primary contact with the customer rather than providing the rails for interlopers like Apple, Google and Samsung to hitch a free ride." I wouldn't read too much into it. Barclays has since said that it would support Apple Pay at some point in the future. In my view, Barclays is doing what all banks should do – think about mobile payments holistically, i.e. how they will support mobile payments across different platforms and use cases (e.g. in-store, in-app, P2P, etc.). Yes, Android Pay has been launched in the US, but it’s not yet available in the UK. Yet HCE technology has given banks around the world an opportunity to launch their own branded NFC solutions for Android, irrespective of whether Android Pay is available in their market or not. Rather than waiting for Android Pay or Samsung Pay to come to the UK, Barclays is joining the growing list of banks such as BBVA in Spain (read the case study of BBVA Wallet, our Model Bank winner here), RBC in Canada (who were granted a patent for their Secure Cloud payments earlier this month), and others that are taking a proactive stance in developing mobile offerings for their Android user base. I have a new report coming out soon that covers key digital payments issues, such as Android Pay and tokenisation in more detail. Watch this space!