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Just another example of a bank waiting and watching and, in one single move, gobbling up a couple of startups who've achieved critical mass or threatening to wipe out years of work done by dozens of fumbling startups. Citi did it with eCount, AmEx did it with RevolutionMoney, now HSBC is doing it with M&S.

On another note, kudos to HSBC and M&S for placing the branch at the center of their new bank. It resonates well with my recent personal experience with HSBC's Cheque Deposit System: After years of paining customers by forcibly keeping them away from the branch by installing these machines that never worked properly, HSBC India recently decided that it wasn't worth inconveniencing the customer to save its operating costs. It has now brought back the good old cheque drop box - which work very well for its customers - inside its branches during business hours, with human assistance readily available if required. 

While I agree with your point about a plethora of new payment methods becoming available to merchants, I'd be more concerned about the fate of the payment service providers. For decades, merchants are used to selecting the right mix of product, pack size and cost from a far bigger basket of merchandise options. They can readily tweak the same processes / best practices - e.g. consignment basis - to decide which payment methods to offer on their stores and e-stores. Besides, for e-stores, technologies like cloud-based A/B testing enable them to do this scientifically, quickly and with tiny budgets. If you'd like to know more on this topic, I'll be happy to continue this discussion offline.

Project management methodology follows development methodology. Unlike the construction industry, software has two different development methodologies, namely, waterfall and agile, so it's logical for it to have PRINCE2 and scrum as two different project management methodologies. With mounting issues in agile over time, I'd place my bet on the pendulum of development methodology swinging to the side of waterfall. Just today, I saw Facebook's homepage promising "No periodic updates" in connection with its downloadable mobile app. Given that agile and frequent updates go hand in hand, looks like FB has already given the nudge to its development methodology pendulum.

Until now, I thought mobile wallets were the height of convolutedness in using a mobile phone instead of a plastic card but this one by NCR beats that hollow by taking convolutedness to new heights. But, I won't be surprised if proves to be a big hit among the segment of population that is already exposed to smartphones but is not yet old enough to become eligible for credit / debit cards. In all likelihood, these pre-adult GenYers will never learn how unconvoluted it has been for people to use cards at ATMs during the previous 40-50 years. To them, ATM + Smartphone might be the most natural combination. I see some parallels between this and the choice of email - desktop (e.g. Outlook) versus webmail (e.g. GMail) - between GenXers and adult GenYers. 

Just so that my previous comments are clear, ICICI Bank exemplifies a different usage scenario, one in which said beneficiary doesn't have a card at all since s/he doesn't have an account with said bank. The use of mobile in this context is complementary to card, not as replacement to it. This product expands the market and earns fees for said bank and is not an example of a security mechanism. To me, supplementing cards by mobile / barcode is great, but not replacing the former by the latter.

The NatWest link took me to a page that described how NatWest's customers could make cardless cash withdrawals from its ATMs. I admit that the use cases mentioned in the article for such a service - lost or stolen card - are valid but this service is hardly revolutionary or even forward-looking.

On the other hand, let me take the example of a product offered by ICICI Bank for over 4-5 years. Here, an ICICI Bank customer initiates a P2P payment via ICICI Bank. The bank sends an authorization code via SMS to the beneficiary, who doesn't have to be an ICICI customer. The beneficiary simply visits the nearest ICICI Bank ATM, enters the PIN and cashes-out the payment. ICICI Bank enables a P2P payment virtually in realtime even to the unbanked or customers of competing banks and makes a tidy fee in the bargain. While not revolutionary, this product expands the footprint of bank-driven retail payments and is self-funding. 

All 'open loop' digital wallets from competing vendors can be used across a variety of establishments that accept Visa / MasterCard. That being the case, aren't they 'open' enough as it is? While 'closed loop' digital wallets surely have a greater challenge finding mainstream adoption, banking regulations in India and a few other countries currently don't permit 'open loop' digital wallets from nonbanks.

These figures don't portend too bright a future for mobile walllets, do they?

@NickC & @ArunA: Thank you for your comments.

@ArunA: LBS is only one example of a non-NFC technology that permits realtime interaction via "geo-fenced" offers. Here, I agree with what you say about the need for the LBS service to be on. In fact, I'd go one step further and claim that, given rapid battery depletion problem in many smartphones when GPS / LBS is on, geo-fenced offer technology is unlikely to reach mainstream adoption for a while. However, non-NFC technologies include others that are based on credit cards. As long as the consumer pays via a certain enrolled credit card at a certain merchant, s/he automatically gets a realtime offer in her / his mobile phone. There's no need for any LBS service to be on. In fact, for SMS-based offers, there's no need for any mobile app to be on. For non-SMS-based offers, the rewards app has to be on, but that's no different from the NFC situation where the mobile wallet app must be on. Besides, in an NFC situation involving Google Wallet - not sure about ISIS though - the consumer must have opted in to receive offers from merchants in the first place, so a merchant can't unilaterally take control and bombard the consumer with offers.

@HenryW:

In case you're a customer of ICICI Bank outside India, the Facebook App is possibly not available for your account category, which is probably why you haven't heard about it. It's available for resident Indian savings account holders like me and I did get two emails from ICICI Bank announcing the launch of its FB app.

The ICICI Bank FB app makes you jump several hoops before you can sign up for it, effectively ruling out account  hijacking by anyone who only knows my FB password. It also demands a 4-digit PIN number for logging you in each time - this is after you've successfully logged into FB using your regular FB password. Therefore, even if someone hacks into my FB account, they can't access my ICICI Bank FB app. By following such an architecture, there's no need for banks to put their social media plans on hold due to the recent LinkedIn incident. However, I recognize it, when it comes to these decisions, perceptions matter more than the nitty gritty of the actual transactional flow, so anything is possible.