MasterCard Unveils PayPass Wallet Services, A New Way To Pay

MasterCard Unveils PayPass Wallet Services, A New Way To Pay
08/05/2012 by Emily Price on Mashable

MasterCard announced PayPass Wallet Services Monday, a new global offering that makes it easier and faster for customers to make purchases in stores and online, by allowing those purchases to be made with a single click or tap.

“We think of MasterCard’s mission as using technology to make payments safer, simpler, smarter and this is just one of the ways we’re progressing against that mission” Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments office, MasterCard told Mashable.

“We realize that when it comes to payments, no single wallet will rule them all. PayPass Wallet Services simplifies the shopping experience while providing flexibility and choice to merchants, banks and consumers,” says McLaughlin.

PayPass Wallet Services has three components: PayPass Acceptance Network, PayPass Wallet and PayPass API which together are designed to streamline your shopping experience no matter how you shop.

PayPass Acceptance Network: The PayPass acceptance network includes both online and contactless payments, and gives merchants a consistent way to accept electronics payments across multiple channels. NFC payments can be made in-store by tapping your mobile phone, and a new PayPass online element lets you check out at a retailer by clicking a PayPass button — automatically providing your shipping and payment information to a retailer without having to fill that information out each time you pay.

PayPass Wallet: PayPass wallet enables banks, merchants and partners to white label their own wallets. Consumers can store payment and shipping information in one secure place including American Express, Discover, Visa and other branded credit, debit and prepaid cards.

PayPass API: The PayPass API allows partners to connect their own wallets into the PayPass network, and lets those partners user MasterCard’s check-out, fraud detection and authentication services to allow their customers to make purchases wherever PayPass is accepted.

MasterCard will make PayPass Wallet Services available to partners in the third quarter of 2012, initially in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia later including other countries.

MasterCard’s first partners for the project include big names like American Airlines and Barnes & Noble. American will be integrating the PayPass Wallet into its mobile application, and Barnes & Noble will be including the PayPass online checkout button on its website.


“Consumers are at a pivotal point now where smartphone adoption has exploded and well over 50 percent of Americans own one,” says Marc Parish, vice president of retention and loyalty marketing for Barnes & Noble. “The technology that will allow customers to make mobile payments at the point of sale has already begun to make a different, and Barnes & Noble is proud to be leading retail in this technology shift”

Other partners include Jagex, JB Hi-Fi, MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com), Newegg, Runningshoes.com, TigerDirect.com and Wine Enthusiast Companies. MasterCard is also working with financial institutions such as Citibank, Fifth Third Bank, and National Bank of Canada. A number of technology partners are also already on board.

“MasterCard’s PayPass Wallet Services has the potential to streamline the payment process for consumers, whether they’re online or offline.” Mark Hung Research Director, Wireless at Garner told Mashable.

“The open nature of the PayPass Wallet looks promising: besides allowing competitors’ offerings to reside in the wallet (e.g., Visa, Amex, and Discover), the PayPass API allows other digital wallets to connect to MasterCard’s acceptance network as well,” says Hung. “It will be interesting to see when the full product will be launched, as well as the breadth of its partners that will be supporting this new initiative.”

What do you think about MasterCard’s new PayPass Wallet services? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.









Source: Mashable

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Bank of England injects another £50bn into UK economy

Bank of England injects another £50bn into UK economy

Bank of England

The Bank of England has agreed to extend its quantitative easing (QE) programme by £50bn to give a further boost to the UK economy.

When completed, it will bring the total amount of QE stimulus to £325bn.

The Bank started its QE programme, through which it buys mainly government-issued bonds from banks freeing up cash for lending, in 2009.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also said it would keep interest rates at their record low of 0.5%.

UK interest rates have been held at that level since March 2009.

The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, said the £275bn of QE undertaken so far was an amount equivalent to nearly 20% of the country's gross domestic product.

Inititally, experts were predicting an extra of £75bn of QE, but this figure was reduced to £50bn when economic surveys released last week indicated that the manufacturing and service sectors had performed better than expected in January.

However, concerns remain over weak consumer spending and the eurozone crisis.

Inflation undershoot?
The Bank said in a statement: "The underlying pace of recovery slowed during 2011, with activity falling slightly during the final quarter.

"Some recent business surveys have painted a more positive picture and asset prices have risen. But the pace of expansion in the United Kingdom's main export markets has also slowed and concerns remain about the indebtedness and competitiveness of some euro-area countries."

It added that without another stimulus from QE, inflation was likely to fall from its current 4.2% to below its 2% target, as rising unemployment and falling import and energy prices fell away, and as the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% last January also dropped from the annual comparison.

Official economic data also released on Thursday showed import prices fell by 1.3% between November and December.

Other figures showed that industrial production, which accounts for about 15% of the economy, grew by 0.5% on the month, against forecasts for a 0.2% rise.

"Despite overall signs that activity picked up in January after GDP contracted 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011, the economy is far from out of the economic woods and it continues to face major obstacles to developing sustainable, decent growth," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

Damaged pensions
The new QE was greeted with dismay by the pensions industry.

Joanne Segars, the chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, said while she could understand the need to boost the economy, QE was damaging the value of pensions: "Retirees who get locked into a weak annuity will find that the Bank's money printing leaves them out of pocket for the rest of their lives.

"For the companies that run final salary pensions, QE is a headache which pushes their pension funds further into the red. This means businesses have to put more money into their pension schemes, instead of spending it on jobs and investment. Our fear is that firms struggling with a weak economy will simply choose to close their pension schemes."

She called for help for pension funds from the Pensions Regulator.

Analysis

Simon GompertzPersonal finance correspondent, BBC News

It seems mind-boggling to most people that a tactic designed to get banks lending more would have the side-effect of knocking pensioners' incomes.

QE makes annuities shrink. You get 25% less now than you did three years ago.

The downward effect of QE on pensions happens because the annuity income you are promised tracks the interest rate the government pays on its debts. These interest rates are already low and QE pushes them even lower.

By pressing the QE button, it could mean thousands have to make do with a whole retirement on less money.

Source: BBC

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