Card networks are taking aggressive action not to lag behind the expected replacement of plastic products with new digital payment methods.
For example, Discover Financial Services has signed onto the cloud-based Google Wallet
Card Networks Plan for Move to Digital Payments
and the Isis mobile wallet venture, and partnered with PayPal to bring the latter’s digital wallet to the point of sale. Visa’s rollout of its V.me wallet, MasterCard forging deals to expand mobile and prepaid payments globally, and American Express’ efforts to court the underbanked and gamer markets are other examples.
The Discover/PayPal alliance will enable Discover merchants to accept PayPal payments at the POS as well, with transactions routed over Discover networks. Discover also has revised its business approach to ease independent sales organizations’ cooperation with the card brand to acquire merchant services accounts.
MasterCard’s global growth efforts this past year include maintaining its deal with Western Union to promote its prepaid card business internationally, testing acceptance of EMV payments online with ING Group, completing a global PayPass agreement with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, and the recent announcement that it has entered into a strategic partnership with C-Sam to push NFC mobile wallet products in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern markets.
“The general theme is that payments are going to continue to grow, but the electronic play is where things are going,” says TowerGroup analyst Brian Riley.
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