Geneva convention

[Dave Birch] I have to say that I sort of disagree with industry observers who point to NFC security as being the key reason why banks and mobile operators can’t agree on how to secure account and transaction data. The reason why financial institutions have been experimenting with “secure elements” that are separate from the SIM is not because they suspect SIMs to be insecure — apart from anything else the SIMs, secure elements and EMV cards are all using the chips and operating systems — but because they (correctly) suspect SIMs to be under the control of mobile operators. An impasse? No, I don’t think so. A lot has been happening in recent months: I think the mobile operators are being more realistic about the potential business model (ie, not asking for transaction revenues) and banks are being to adjust to the idea of a payment device that the belongs to the customer, not the institution. With services actually launching, it seems to me that the new value network is beginning to co-ordinate ready for 2008. I imagine this is the sort of thing, by the way, that informed people will be discussing at IIR’s Mobile & NFC Payment Strategies conference in Geneva in November.

Technorati Tags: payments

I’m going to be running the pre-conference workshop at the event so I’m really looking forward to it — it won’t be a lecture, it will be a structured workshop to help people to understand how mobile and NFC payments work, how they are being deployed and what kind of factors organisations should be considering in developing their strategies. Incidentally, if you’re going to be in Geneva on 27th November and you’d like to come and join in the workshop, the dear, dear people at IIR have (in an act of astounding generosity) agreed to provide a complimentary workshop place worth EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE of our English pounds to the first blog reader to reply, in the now-traditional fashion, with the name of the hotel that the conference will be held in. Also in the now traditional fashion, the offer is open to all except for employees of Consult Hyperion, blogmeister Jane and members of my immediate family. There are no cash alternatives. Oh, and no-one can win more than one of these blog competitions per year.

These opinions are my own (I think) and presented solely in my capacity as an interested member of the general public [posted with ecto]