Market Platform Dynamics weighs in on EMV, NFC and identity predictions for 2013
04 January, 2013
category: Contactless, Financial, NFC
Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster has shared her insights and forecasts for the coming year in the EMV, NFC and identity sectors.
In a recent Pymnts.com article, Webster reveals her support of PayPal President David Marcus’ thoughts on NFC in the New Year. Like Marcus, Webster feels that NFC payments are not the convenience that many would like to believe them to be.
Swiping a credit card has become second nature to virtually every major commercial market in contemporary society, and Webster believes that the “tapping is better than swiping” argument will not be the saving grace for NFC. Webster does believe that there are some markets like that of Poland — where paying with plastic is a fairly new concept and banks are issuing contactless as their first cards — in which NFC payments could yet be successful.
Beyond NFC, Webster weighed in on the identity security landscape and where concerns should lie in 2013. The need for strong and reliable identity security has grown alongside the number of devices that people use to share data and sensitive information, ideally protecting every endpoint and device connected to the Internet.
Webster, on the other hand, implores us to pump the brakes, stating that credit and debit cards in the U.S. aren’t all that secure in the first place. Consumers give out their credit card numbers on a daily basis with little means of identity protection.
Identity security and e-commerce have, by Webster’s estimation, adopted an “it works well enough” attitude. With this in mind Webster believes that people should still worry about security at endpoints, but not to obsess over the introduction of an airtight identity solution.
Perhaps more intriguing than her predictions for NFC and identity, are Webster’s thoughts on EMV in the New Year, stating that “EMV as a technology standard won’t make it in the U.S.”
Webster cites the liability shift expected in 2015, but goes on to state that there is little chance that American merchants will be able to comply in time. Webster posits that the problem EMV was intended to solve over a decade ago in Europe simply does not exist in the U.S. today.
Furthermore, Webster believes that there is a better, smarter alternative yet to emerge that would overtake EMV deployments as currently envisioned. With this in mind, Webster finds it hard to believe that the U.S. would spend billions to deploy an out-of-date technology.
This smart alternative, according to Webster, would likely pave the way for a global standard, enabling a global compatibility that EMV has promised to provide. Webster estimates that this proposed development would eliminate the critical mass of terminals at merchants— and add to the uncertainty of NFC in the U.S.
For more from Karen Webster, see her 2012 Year in Review here.