Mobey Forum’s First MPOS Report Details new Mobile Payment Players
Mobey Forum, the bank-led trade body for mobile financial services (FS), has today published the first in a series of white papers charting and analysing the mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) revolution sweeping across North America and Europe, led by the likes of Square, iZettle and Intuit, which could change the way retail treasurers process payments in future.
The paper entitled ‘The MPOS Breakthrough: How the Power of Mobile has Disrupted Payments’ is the first deliverable from the newly formed international MPOS task force, founded and coordinated by the Mobey Forum’s North American Chapter. It aims to explore the rapidly changing MPOS landscape and to arm banks and other players in the payments ecosystem, such as card schemes, with the knowledge necessary to either enter this high growth market, or at least prepare for more competition. Treasurers at retailers should also be aware of this evolving payments arena, which is likely to impact how they track, receive and process payments in the future.
Danske Bank, Elavon, Fiserv, La Caixa, MasterCard and RBS all contributed to the white paper, alongside other Mobey Forum members such as Bank of America Merchant Services, CIBC, Metaforic, Nets, Nordea, Visa and US Bank.
The MPOS paper tracks the progress of numerous new innovative players in this space, including mPowa, Payleven and others, and explains how non-traditional non-bank thinking has been crucial to driving adoption. The Mobey Forum whitepaper also highlights key factors influencing the growth of the MPOS ecosystem as it transitions from a niche solution for micro-merchants to a new revenue generator for multinational retailers.
Commenting on the report, Matt Calman, chairman of the Mobey Forum MPOS Task Force and a senior vice president and research and development executive at Bank of America, said: “Little more than three years after the first wave of MPOS solutions hit the market, the technology is already redefining merchant card acceptance at the point-of-sale (POS), by rewriting the rules on who can accept card payments and also vastly simplifying the process of doing so.
“Solutions from new, disruptive players in MPOS have gained real traction with micro merchants, and banks and financial institutions are now starting to show their hands. Our series of white papers, of which this is the first, aims to provide guidance for the next wave of players seeking to establish a foothold in this space.”
The task force brings together Mobey Forum’s global members in order to deliver educational and actionable analysis on the MPOS market. Through a series of three planned papers, the task force aims to drive adoption of MPOS technology by addressing the complexities of customer needs and expectations; analysing MPOS’ disruptive impact on the payments market and exploring the strategic options and business models for banks, other financial institutions and large volume payment users such as treasuries.
The series of white papers aims to raise awareness of the technology and its development ecosystem, encouraging dialogue between interested stakeholders with a view to accelerating adoption in the marketplace. The series will explore the go-to-market processes of MPOS providers by evaluating specific user case studies and will examine how the traditional players in the mobile FS landscape can establish a sustainable position in the MPOS value chain.