Business Technology

As more varied methods of payments emerge, security fears from consumers grow. Digital cash vouchers provide an alternative way to pay online that is safe and secure It’s fantastic that there are all of these emerging ways to pay such as mobile payments, NFC (near field communication) phones, electronic wallets, biometric payment authentication technologies, and [...]

The money debate should not be focused on the so-called death of cash. The real question is, how should payment solutions of the present and future co-exist to serve the merchant, retailer and consumer? It wasn’t many years ago that we were being told that “cash is dead” and that cards, particularly contactless cards, were [...]

Eliminating fraud isn’t always A call to arms best for business as heavy-handed measures could drive customers away. So how can retailers find the right balance? What’s the optimum level of fraud for an online retailer? The obvious answer is zero: no business wants to lose money because it has accepted a payment against a [...]

Carrying cash is expensive for all concerned, so what will create the perfect conditions to phase it out once and for all? Determinants of how far the payment landscape will change over the years ahead will be more to do with the practical availability of the various options and public acceptance of them than with [...]

Jonathan Watson asked Carl Olav Scheible, managing director of PayPal UK, about the likely impact of digital money on British businesses What does digital money mean for British businesses? For many, it’s a great opportunity to reach new markets and new sets of consumers. For others, it’s a threat, because it changes the way they [...]

Mobile payments offer customers a far richer banking experience and at very low cost, but given the rate at which UK and most global banks are responding, will it be a social media player that corners the market? Anyone still sceptical about the likely impact of mobile payments should look east for evidence of how [...]

Innovative technologies are shaping the future of payments. Interactive and intelligent mobile commerce could change the way consumers perceive the point of sale forever Up until now, the most important features of a successful payment system have been security, speed and simplicity – creating a positive experience whichever way the customer wants to pay. Today, [...]

Common sense, it seems, is often sadly lacking when it comes to protecting ourselves from cyber criminals In the digital realm – just as in the physical – criminals follow the money. And if smartphones soon become our digital wallets as predicted, the villains of the virtual world are set to launch sophisticated attacks in [...]

For the past 40 years, one payments provider has led the way in innovation – from contactless cards to payment-enabled phones; what’s next on the agenda for this global giant? James McDonald manages Barclaycard’s contactless business payments team and is leading the company’s contactless payments initiative from a merchant perspective. Contactless allows customers to pay [...]

Soon every new smartphone will enable us to ‘wave and pay’, but how far away is this capability, and will there be a single, network-wide system? Have you ever been for lunch at Canary Wharf? According to Tom Gregory, head of digital payments at Barclaycard, it can get “pretty manic”. Office workers usually face long [...]