Paris match

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[Dave Birch] We still have a couple of places left for the (free) CSFI Roundtable discussion on “Innovation and the Internal Market” at the OECD in Paris on Friday. See the research fellowship invitation for all of the details.

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

What’s in a name?

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[Dave Birch] I got caught out in a meeting referring to the APACS Card Payment Group, which of course no longer exists. I thought I’d render a quick public service to help other people to avoid similar mistakes. Here’s your handy cut-out-and-keep guide to the UK’s new payment organisation landscape.

The Payments Council was created in March 2007 to set out the national strategy for UK payments. It has a Payments Council Board made up of banking representatives, some independent directors and an independent chairman (Brian Pomeroy). The principal UK payment schemes (listed below) have a contract with the Payments Council to set out rights and duties.

The UK Cards Association is the successor the much-loved APACS Card Payments Group (CPG). It is the trade body for the UK cards industry. Its 14 members, the major card issuers and acquirers, work together here on non-competitive issues.

Financial Fraud Action UK was created earlier this year to work alongside the UK Cards Association on the specific issue of reducing fraud.

The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) is a specialist law enforcement unit made up from officers from the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police and funded by the banking industry. It investigates serious and organised cheque and card fraud.

SWIFT (UK) Limited is the membership organisation representing the UK’s SWIFT users.

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

Payments aren’t just about payments

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[Dave Birch] Speaking at the Cards & Payments Quarterly Thought Leadership seminar, Andy Simmonds of Barclaycard was talking about pan-European acquiring. One of the several excellent and perceptive points he made was that large, pan-European merchants will “take matters into their own hands” unless they get better service from banks. What he meant, I think, was that retailers will either issue their own semi-closed loop payment cards, stickers, watches, hat, badges and whatever else or that they will demand direct access to Visa and MasterCard. Contactless, that well-known Mickey Mouse technology will, I think, have an impact here because it gives retailers and others the ability to move beyond the card format. Let’s face it, cards are a bit boring to the average consumer (as are payments, frankly) and so these alternative form factors may have attractions beyond rational product evaluation, if you see what I mean.

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

Good morning, thing

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[Dave Birch] OK, so I know it sounds spooky and people are uncomfortable with RIFD-at-a-distance, but there would be some advantages to being “recognised” by machines. Think about the subject from a customer service perspective rather than a security, spying and generally creepy perspective. As, in fact, some people already have been.

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) today announced the launch of a project whose goal is to help member banks adopt radio frequency identification technology (RFID).

[From FSTC | Financial Services Technology Consortium - Press & Articles]

Why would banks want to do that? Well, it is relatively easy to implement vicinity (let’s say up to a couple of metres) read-only functionality along side the proximity (let’s say up to a couple of centimetres) read-write functionality used in contactless identity cards, bank cards and NFC phones. The chip sets are readily available. Handled correctly, this is something that a great many customers would appreciate.

Imagine a world where, when you walk into your bank, messages and adverts pop up that address you by name.

[From What high street banking will look like in 2020]

While The Times might see this as something for 2020, more technologically advanced nations are already experimenting with the technology,

Now “Yes Bank” which is a commercial bank operating out of India has been piloting an RFID system so that bank employees can identify these rich fat customers and offer them personalized services. Under the pilot RFID banking cards have been offered to select customers apart from deployment of RFID interrogators and customized gate antennas at bank premises… The moment the elite customer arrives in the bank his details are flashed on the system which enables the relationship team to identify the concerned person so that they can accord him services in the best possible manner.

[From The RFID Weblog: RFID being used to give preferential treatment to rich clients in Indian banks]

I can readily imagine using a Tesco Clubcard with this technology, or a BA Executive Club card or a transit card. As a consumers, I want to get better service where possible and the idea that everything from shopping cards to airport display boards might know who I am and deliver personalised service because of that is rather appealing. At least, it’s rather appealing provided that my identity is managed properly and my privacy is assured. This could be done at a physical level: you might, for example, have a Clubcard that only functions when you press a button on it.

This system creates a tiny, ultra-thin, pressure sensitive switch “which ensures that the device can only be read when the owner is pressing the switch”, said Peratech.

[From British firm develops RFID security technology to prevent ‘skimming’ | 20 Aug 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com]

Well, I can see how that might work for a card, although it seems a bit of a hassle in practice. But what about other form factors, particularly form factors that might make it difficult for someone to physically reach the switch. For example:

In times where a lot of hue and cry is being raised over injecting humans with RFID tags here is a video of a guy who seems pretty cool about injecting RFID chip in his hand

[From The RFID Weblog: The Do It yourself Guide to implanting RFID Chip in your hand]

Connecting things up is easy, but disconnecting them is hard! The solution, surely, is not down at the physical layer but in the logical layer above it. Extending the future digital identity management infrastructure to the Internet of things has to be the way forward and if properly designed such an infrastructure could deliver more, I think, thank many people imagine. In particular, such an infrastructure could protect privacy through the judicious use of cryptography rather than through codes of practice or goodwill.

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These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.