Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 4 June 2018
Verifone adds multi-purpose camera to portable POS
Designed to support on-the-go small and mid-sized business merchants (SMBs), Verifone introduces a built-in camera/scanner for the Verifone Engage V240m.
The camera expands the already powerful V240m portable solution to be capable of payment acceptance, image capture, and QR / barcode scanning at checkout.
From retail shops to restaurants, police departments to airports, the V240m camera empowers a wide range of SMBs to accept a growing variety of payment types and images. In addition to traditional credit card payments, the built-in camera scans printed or digital barcodes from coupons, loyalty cards, vouchers, mobile wallets and QR codes like Alipay and Groupon. Additionally, the camera conveniently captures images such as identity cards, bank checks and even license plates. All these activities help to improve both merchant and customer experiences, boost loyalty, and offer opportunities to increase revenue.
The first-out use cases this year will be in Spain for issuing tax refunds, Norway for inventory scanning, Chile for barcode scanning, and Malaysia for Alipay support.
Introduced last year, the V240m is a cost-effective, durable and easy-to-use portable with a large 3.5” capacitive touchscreen, digital signature capabilities, and HVGA resolution for new commerce opportunities.
Mitek and Signicat join forces for digital onboarding
Mitek, an identity verification software solutions, and Signicat, a trusted digital identity provider, announced a partnership to improve the digital customer on-boarding process for Europe’s financial services companies, while helping clients in their efforts to comply with a number of regulations, including PSD2, AMLD5, and eIDAS.
For many European financial services companies, the battle to attract new customers is fierce. With new “challenger” banks emerging and smaller banks looking to capitalise on new technologies to provide a competitive advantage, every step of the customer acquisition process must be streamlined to achieve optimum success.
“At Signicat we commissioned a report, ‘The battle to on-board: The European perspective on digital on-boarding for retail banks’, to understand what consumers across Europe identify as problem areas when it comes to selecting new financial service providers,” said Gunnar Nordseth, CEO at Signicat. “We found that up 52% of European customers abandon the on-boarding process and one of the main reasons for this is the need to present paper-based ID documents. The research further found that 52% of respondents would be more inclined to register for a new service should the on-boarding process be 100% online.”
ABN Amro says customers prefer wearables to debit cards
ABN Amro launched a pilot earlier this year in which 500 clients were asked to make payments using wearables. Of these clients, an impressive 78 per cent now prefer the wearables, and only 19 per cent prefer their debit cards.
On average, clients make six payments a week for amounts under 25 euros. ABN AMRO is extending the pilot to test new functionalities with this pilot group.
During the pilot, clients provided feedback using a dedicated app. Some of their suggestions led to adjustments while the pilot was ongoing, and, based on others, new features are now being developed. The majority of clients wanted to be able to see payments made with the wearable real-time in their Mobile Banking app, rather than a day later as is now the case. Also, clients want to be able to make payments over 25 euros with their wearables and PINs.
