Opinions

Instant Apps could give banks a better option for transitioning customers from a quick and easy account opening to a more robust banking experience.

How can banks benefit from a spurt of mobile payments innovation that is enabling faster checkouts with the advantage of greater security for customers?

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

The fight between Visa and Walmart over authenticating chip cards could have a negative outcome for everyone involved, regardless of which side wins.

In the ongoing melee between the two major players, strong authentication has been put on the backburner in favor of the respective economies of implementing chip card technology.

For a customer to switch from a tried and true payment method to a new one, the provider must be able to offer a unique payment experience which offers concrete and obvious advantages like top-level security, unique rewards and unprecedented agility. For these reasons, the Merchant Customer Exchange's retailer-led mobile payments initiative CurrentC was bound to fail.

When it comes to earning consumer loyalty with user-friendly mobile banking tools, everyday interactions can matter more than momentous ones.

The debate over speeding up payments transactions should consider the necessity of allowing consumers time to rethink and abort their purchases.

There is an old saying by Mark Twain, "Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, unless you can't think of anything better." Recently, Walmart filed a lawsuit against Visa complaining the company won't let it require PINs on transactions made with chip-enabled debit cards.

Everyone agrees that electronic transactions should be as safe as possible, but a PIN mandate will not prevent online or mobile fraud.