Today, it’s largely bigger banks and issuers participating in the latest digital wallets, namely Android Pay and Samsung Pay. In partnership with our financial institution (FI) clients, TMG is already working to change that.
Our market-leader positioning with digital-wallet enablement has paved a quick and easy path to access for our card-issuing clients. In fact, more than 75 percent of our FI clients are live or have a project underway with at least Apple Pay, if not also Samsung Pay and Android Pay.
In a recent exclusive client webinar, our digital and product teams asked nearly 75 attendees if they plan to implement the latest digital wallet solutions. For both Samsung Pay and Android Pay, 86 percent of respondents said they plan to make the solutions available to their cardholders.
When asked for their perspectives on cardholder preference for Android Pay versus Samsung Pay, 54 percent of TMG clients expected Samsung Pay to be more attractive to their cardholders. Forty percent answered Android Pay. This may be due to Samsung Pay’s promise to be available nearly anywhere credit and debit cards are accepted today.
Samsung Pay uses magnetic secure transmission (MST), which mimics the technology used by credit and debit cards. Android Pay and Apple Pay, on the other hand, only work in point-of-sale environments where near field communication (NFC) is enabled.
Regardless of varying opinions on preference, more and more consumers are beginning to demand mobile payment options from their FIs. According to a recent survey, 30 percent of consumers said they would be willing to switch FIs to gain access to mobile payments. People love their plastic, but media attention to data breaches, cybersecurity attacks and the online fraud fallout from EMV chip cards in the U.S. has them concerned about security. The added security behind mobile solutions, including Android Pay and Samsung Pay, gives consumers a powerful reason to demand their FIs give them access to digital wallets.
WHAT IT MEANS:
For credit unions and community FIs, enabling mobile payments today is about readiness for heightened consumer demand and merchant acceptance tomorrow. Loathe them or love them, digital wallets are a rising force in the payments world.