ADN’co Payments Insight – March 2014

Paperless luncheon vouchers growing more tangible

• FRANCE – the market of luncheon vouchers is about to evolve: the decree authorising their use has been published in the French Journal Officiel on 7 March 2014. Longstanding issuers and new entrants are emphasising the advantages of their cards in a new context.
• BELGIUM – the National Labour Council is pressuring the local luncheon voucher industry into opting for full dematerialisation by the end of 2015: paper vouchers may well be on their way to disappearing in Belgium…

These announcements tend to show that the issue of dematerialisation is being considered on an international level…

For years, the French luncheon voucher market has been led by longstanding players (Edenred, Chèque Déjeuner, Sodexo and Natixis), but the cards might now be reshuffled. Could this mean new hope for new entrants who thus far have had a hard time penetrating the market? Could there be new diversification opportunities for associated services? Many questions are being raised.

Important announcement for the British mobile payment market

• UNITED KINGDOM – the UK Payments Council will soon be launching its mobile payment solution based on the mobile phone numbers of bank customers. This service, called Paym, is already being tested and several banks have committed to proposing it.

The UK Payments Council is promoting a product intended for nationwide use. This might be an issue for rival products that have already hit the market. Will there be room for all these services?

PayPal continues to promote the authentication market

• UNITED STATES – PayPal and Samsung have unveiled a FIDO-compliant authentication system embedding a biometric sensor for user identification in payment contexts.

The new trend of connected objects

• UNITED STATES – BeautifulLab and LevelUp have presented a mobile payment app designed for Pebble smartwatches: a new step towards implementing payment services on wearable devices.