ADN’co Payments Insight – July 2013

Square relies on a marketplace to settle in the e-commerce sector

• UNITED STATES – Square is reaching out for new opportunities with Square Market: an e-commerce platform designed for small local merchants.

This diversification technique recalls eBay’s as the US giant managed to spread through as many sales channels as possible. Unlike PayPal, however, Square branches out from mobile card payments to try and grow into an e-commerce player, spreading its reach further across the payment value chain.

Paperless luncheon vouchers making their way into the French market?

• FRANCE – Cartes Bancaires reached an agreement with the main French luncheon vouchers issuers, one more step towards accepting paperless vouchers in its network.

As leading issuers, Edenred, Groupe Chèque Déjeuner, Sodexo and Natixis intend to counter newly installed players (Moneo Resto and RestoFlash), early supporters of paperless vouchers.

La Banque Postale opting for contactless microSDs

• FRANCE – La Banque Postale is running contactless m-payment tests in Caen and Bordeaux. Unlike most rival offers, their solution is prepaid-based.

Challenging card schemes with alternative mobile payment solutions

• UNITED KINGDOM – VocaLink is challenging major card networks with Zapp: a credit transfer based mobile payment solution associating bank account and mobile phone numbers.
• POLAND – Several Polish banks have joined forces to design a mobile payment system relying on direct debits. The upcoming solution uses app-generated OTPs  and will also be fit for face to face in-store payments.

Both the British payments operator, and these Polish banks are seeking to leverage a viable universal alternative likely to counter international card schemes’ offers. A new part to be played by mobile devices as they might help give birth to new growth opportunities.