Contactless payments by mobile phone could become mainstream in 2011

Something odd happened in the past couple of years. Everyone stopped asking whether it’s the year of the mobile. That’s probably because mobile has now become mainstream and with the mainstream comes the tsunami of innovation, not least in the financial services sector.

This week Nokia announced that they were making a huge move in the mobile payments market to move closer to contactless payments with the launch of their C7 phone in 2011. The rumours are that the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology required are also appearing in patents being filed by Apple for the new generation iPhone and in addition Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO has also announced that they working with NFC technology for the android platform. So does this mean an era of contactless payments may be just around the corner?

Alex Kwiatkowski - Principal Analyst in Ovum's Financial Services Technology Team voiced some doubts stating that 'While the ecosystem is evolving, old concerns (10+ years) over a viable business model for sustainable/decent revenue remain' he went on to say 'Nokia pulled its 6216 device (using NFC & SWP) in Feb '10, due to current state of NFC ecosystem and poor consumer experience.' So Nokia definitely have some credibility issues when it comes to the technology and with Symbian still performing so poorly, the issue is compounded.

However as always with Google and Apple in the frame the play becomes more serious from a software perspective and with Nokia’s ability to flood the market with low cost hardware, the battle could be fought on two fronts.

Ecosystem and revenue concerns there may be, but with 3 such massive players making a play and a whole host of bit part players around the edges, you get the impression that there must be something in it. Personally, the sooner I can get rid of my wallet the better so I’m hoping we’re not far away.

Lessons from Sibos 2010

Sibos drew to a close at the end of last week and while the cream of the banking industry were there in force with some of the largest stands ever seen, it was noticeable how many new players were present . Reflections on the conference can be found here, but the innovation on show covered in the main, mobile, the cloud and the future of business payments. All of which are putting more and more power in the hands of consumers.

Strikingly amongst all of the big banking that was being talked, there appeared to be a groundswell of new businesses coming together to promote new models. The first project that had real stand-out was a view that we were about to see the new Financial Reformation.



This bold vision was echoed by the Future of Money project. The project started out as a blog post, a few weeks prior to this year's Sibos. It was a post that galvanised small businesses with a vision for the future of transaction, payments and new economic models, to not only donate their time but their money to build this vision for the future. This is a vision that cuts out the banks and relies on communities to find ways and means to build new transactional models.

It is inconceivable that these views would have been given exposure at the same event some years ago. However, it is a measure of how the financial crisis has hit the sector that there is a real challenge to the old model in their own backyard.

The future of money is here and it's in our hands

The Future of money project started out as a blog post, a few weeks prior to this year's Sibos. It was a post that galvanised small businesses with a vision for the future of trasaction, payments and new economic models, to not only donate their time but their money to build this vision for the future. This is a vision that cuts out the banks and relies on communities to find ways and means to build new transactional models.

The Future of Money from KS12 on Vimeo.

I'm fascinated to see where this goes next. It feels like it's created amazing connection across the world. This is the start of the money revolution keep your eyes peeled.

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

Anyone who saw Sir Ken Robinson's first Ted talk in 2006, will be pleased that he returned this year in a follow up to the talk that persuaded TED's organisers that they might just be on to something.

The first talk is absolute essential viewing

The second is just as engaging.

 

Human augmentation and human restoration

Via RWW this morning I was taking a look at the 2010 Gartner hype cycle as below.

It's pretty fascinating stuff. However there was one tag right at the bottom of the cycle that I knew very little about, i.e. human augmentation. A quick search bought up the video posted below. It's frankly quite amazing stuff. It's over an hour long, but if you have the time it'll be worthwhile. I haven't finished watching yet - work and that - but really it's astounding from the off.

 

There's more info from MIT World and additional resources here.

 

 

 

ASB opens first Facebook bank branch in the world

Three weeks ago ASB in New Zealand opened the doors (or whatever you term the online equivalent, launched I guess) to Facebook's first online bank branch. On my company site I blogged some months back about the potential for Facebook to become a major player in banking services and what ASB have done is recognise that potential and faced it head on, moving their services on to the social network. It's a brave move in the FS industry, but one that was inevitable.

Last week I tried the branch out. It's a very simple service. At its heart it's an online chat interface built directly into Facebook. There are a selection of advisers to choose to talk to, all of whom are named and photographed individuals, to increase the person to person appeal that is the hallmark of social networking and you are able to choose from those available to chat.

I spoke to Elysse to find out how the launch was going? She was friendly, personable and very knowledgable and stated there had been considerable interest in the service. Although ASB are at present unable to offer services to those overseas, she said they had had considerable contact from New Zealand travellers who were able to sort out their issues quickly and easily through Facebook.

I then went on to have a brief Twitter chat with Anna Curzon the General Manager, Internet Banking for ASB who confirmed the interest




That second statement really underlines the point of introducing this branch concept in to Facebook. In a time impoverished and globalised environment brands need to be in the places their customers are. Financial services brands are definitely behind the curve in following that trend, but ASB has made a huge step forward.

While the services through the ASB Facebook branch are currently limited the mere fact that they are there speaks volumes for their foresight and ambition. This is a bold first move and we’re sure it will be the first of many. I'm keping a firm eye on whether ASB benefits from first mover advantage.

The IFA is dead, long live the IFA

In a side room of the Liberal Democrat conference last week, the traditional IFA was put on life support. Lord Newby stated in a satellite meeting that, “The traditional model of the IFA looks to me like a doomed species. I think there will be a drift away from old fashioned financial advice”.

He went on to say. “I hope people do take financial advice but they will want it free and they will want it delivered electronically.”

This may well be true of the old model, but at the same time in Newport the IFP was holding their annual conference. This collection of individuals represents the future of the industry. Life planners and chartered financial planners, who embraced RDR from the minute it was announced and are now using new technologies to engage with their customers and run a completely fee based model. This was a room of individuals harnessing the power of the web to ensure that the advice model adapts and changes and letting the world know through a vibrant hashtagged twitter stream.

Businesses like Informed Choice with its Brilliant with Money and recently launched Brilliant with Advice split option portals or Jackson’s whose MD Pete Matthew recently launched the completely free video based Meaningful Money .tv channel are looking to overlay free sensible advice with quality paid for financial planning.

This new model for advice is being supported and electronically enabled by businesses such as Paraplanplus whose Moneyscope product is about to launch. In addition the IFA focussed social network IFALife is growing exponentially to support the community and stimulate the growth in this new electronically enabled financial planning model. To facilitate that growth they launched their new iPhone app last week.

The IFA may be dying, but the future of ‘paid for’ financial advice is alive and kicking stronger than ever online.