Ana De La Fuente and Peter Cooper share a vision for the future of payment cards with a new and dynamic landscape being created:
- Consumer behaviours are changing
- The banking industry is more and more competitive
- Payment tokenisation offers new ways to engage and acquire customers
- Issuers can drive enhanced relationships with their customers
Today, many of us use contactless for most purchases. Our cards are connected to our smartphones and wearables, which we blip/tap to make payments. Things must go quickly without compromising security. Inserting cards and typing in pin numbers doesn’t cut it anymore. The card experience is evolving as user behavior changes. Providers must be a part of this if they are to remain relevant.
Contactless, the common way to pay
With contactless becoming one of the most common methods of payment in Europe, we take a quick look at the opportunities open to banks that want to seize the initiative and grow their customer base using contactless as one of their pillars.
One company already doing this is German payment provider and certified card processor petaFuel. The company created the VIMpay mobile payment app together with its own E-Money Institute PayCenter for contactless payment services. VIMpay has been contributing to the petaFuel’s customer base through its offering of innovative contactless payment methods. As one of the main providers of wearable contactless payments in Germany, the company has seen customers migrate from only using VIMpay for wearable payments to also using other banking services with petaFuel.
The ability to onboard new consumers in this way, moving them through the value chain to become established customers, is proving more and more important in a crowded and highly competitive market.
Increased app engagement
Fidesmo is now bringing its contactless payment capabilities to cards, which means banks will be able to explore new innovative opportunities through payments cards. Fidesmo cards, which use digital tokens – known as tokenization – to ensure payments meet the highest security, do not need names, card numbers or CVC codes embossed or printed on them. These details can be stored in a bank’s app where they can only be seen by the user when, for instance, they make an online payment. This, incidentally, acts as a bridge for customers to engage with the bank app.
Instead, a blank card with an embedded chip is used. This minute NFC chip can be integrated unseen into the card, enabling banks to create any card design they wish without the cost of embossing. But card design is just the beginning of what is possible.
New opportunities in cards
Since Fidesmo cards don’t require account numbers they don’t have to be produced for a specific customer. Payment cards can be mass produced, in the same way that hotel or phone cards are, and activated by users upon purchase. Essentially, a Fidesmo card allows banks to challenge the way cards are used today. Different valued payments card of 100, 50 or 10 Euros could be sold at local kiosks, which could be easily topped up once the user has registered a card with a bank. Free cards, with a preloaded value, could be given away at events to gain new customers. If giving away plastic cards isn’t enticing enough for potential customers, the same card information can be put onto a branded wearable, such as a ring, bracelet, or key chain, making click and pay a fun experience.
The opportunities are endless, and the great thing about it is that rather than compromising security, using NFC chips for contactless payments adds security. The digital tokens are issued when the card is connected and they are only compatible with the physical payments. Therefore, card skimming is no longer an issue.
How can banks get onboard?
As a token requester, Fidesmo is globally integrated with the Visa, Mastercard and Bancontact payment schemes and the NFC chips used are all globally certified for payments. Any bank that wishes to launch tokenization-based cards can set up a project with our payment systems to enable Fidesmo as a Token Requestor. The process can be implemented in a matter of weeks if a bank has an existing integration with the schemes’ tokenization platforms. Additionally, as the Fidesmo system is payment-rail agnostic, we can develop integrations for individual schemes to meet your needs.
In conclusion…
The Fidesmo card combines opportunity and security for banks that are looking for new ways to grow their customer base and want to offer customers next-gen in-store payment services.
Contact Fidesmo to bring a tokenised payment card pilot in the market in just 30 days.
This article was written by:
Ana De La Fuente Aguilar – Fidesmo Product Owner of Payment
Ana joined Fidesmo from Samsung Electronics, where she was Technical Product Manager. She believes that combining security and savings with customer-centricity is a catalyst for change in the payments industry.
Peter Cooper – Fidesmo Chief Security Officer
Peter has over 20 years of network and security experience from global enterprises, fintechs and a lot in between. He thrives at the crossroads of security and business development seeing opportunities where others see barriers.
