Bankinter converting the phone into a onetime-use credit card
Bankinter is developing an innovative mobile-based payment solution that allows customers to securely and instantly create a onetime-use debit or credit card on their mobile phone both for contactless payments in stores, restaurants or gas stations as well as online. The project is being developed by Bankinter in collaboration with high profile partners including Visa Europe, Net1 UEPS and Seglan.
One of the characteristics of this new system is simplicity. Customers are invited to download an application onto their smartphone from an application store and then register the product through the bank's website. Using electronic signature mechanisms, the mobile is enabled for mobile payments in few minutes.
During the process a companion to the customer´s physical credit or debit cards will be temporarily downloaded to the user's mobile phone. The solution makes use of secure virtualization techniques and 2-factor authentication, which ensures payment security.
Based on well established EMV standards, this solution does not require any changes to the existing acceptance infrastructure (POS terminals) for NFC proximity payments. It also allows the bank to autonomously define its own business model and brand image in mobile payment media, without entering into an agreement with third parties. In this sense, the cards registered by the user can be updated via a remote management system 100% integrated into the Mobile Virtual Card client-server system of the financial institution.
"The Mobile Virtual Card solution eliminates the main difficulties that today are slowing the commercial launch of NFC payments and make it in compatibility with the standards of the financial industry, helping to avoid market fragmentation that in no way benefits the final consumer" says Jacobo Díaz, Director of Innovation, Products, Markets and Quality of Bankinter. According to Sandra Alzetta, Senior Vice President, Visa Europe, "Visa Europe is delighted to enable the uptake of new payment technologies. We're passionate about the use of mobile at the point of sale and it's clear that NFC payments provide a great user experience. Contactless transactions across Europe quadrupled in 2012 and will quadruple again in 2013, driven by the availability of contactless cards and the growing number of commercial mobile payment implementations. We're delighted by Bankinter's decision to enable mobile NFC payments and we expect that by 2020 one in two Visa transactions will be made from a mobile device."
The solution will be available in summer 2013, as part of Bankinter's commitment to innovation and development of applications for mobile payments. Since 2009, the Bank has been involved in multiple initiatives related to NFC mobile payments, aware that mobile payments are poised to become a popular phenomenon. Already more than 200 million users worldwide (1) use smartphones for making payments and it is estimated that in the next five years most purchases made in physical stores will be processed through mobile terminals.
1. Gartner, May 2012; Capgemini I World Payments Report 2011, September 2011.