Let the digital wallet hack-a-thon commence

Great to see the likes of Microsoft acting as enablers for the next steps in mobile wallets.

From my point of view, 2012 has been the year of the mobile wallet and 2013 will see some actual merchant adoption of the many wallets that have already been announced, no doubt with many more to come before the inevitable consolidation will occur. Picking the winners and losers, though, is far harder in what is fast becoming a saturated market. Merchant adoption is of course key. 2013 will also be the year of mobile payments. I personally believe that 2013 will herald a faster transition to mobile payments than analysts are currently predicting. Traditional transaction methods remain woefully inadequate to meet the needs of both the world’s large under-banked population and those who are demanding even greater convenience from their banks. Mobile opens up a host of possibilities to address both needs.

However, throughout 2012 the mobile payments industry has been preoccupied with the race for market share and no single technical standard has emerged. As long as there remains opportunity to be had and competition remains high, I think we’ll see this trend continue. I wouldn’t be surprised if along the way some of the fundamentals fail to be addressed (we have already seen one high-profile case in the UK in 2012) and we see a significant fraud attack that puts users at risk, causing significant reputational damage for this new channel.

That’s why, as we move into 2013, we’re fully in support of activities that will help shaping the future of mobile wallets.