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IndustryUpdate
winning team will receive the coveted Best in Show er gain in December rising to 113.7, up from 109.4
prize of $10,000 and also be invited for a co-creation the previous month. Over the same time frame, the
engagement with Visa Inc. at its Innovation Center in Expectations Index increased sharply from 94.4 to 105.5,
Singapore. but the Present Situation Index decreased from 132.0
to 126.1. The index also reported that consumer senti-
Wyre completes funding, unveils platform ment on current conditions and the labor market both
declined in December, but the consumer short-term out-
Wyre launched its cross-border, blockchain-based pay- look improved considerably.
ments platform, which enables businesses to move
money across borders from country-to-country at a EFTA releases white paper
highly competitive foreign exchange rate, the company
said. Wyre also closed $5.8 million in Series A funding The Electronic Funds Transfer Association released
led by Chinese venture firm Amphora Capital. The Wyre its final white paper in a three-part series on "User
platform is available in the United States and China, Authentication," which details the benefits and chal-
and the company plans to expand service to Europe and lenges of utilizing user authentication as a component of
Latin America. an overall security strategy. In an effort to address docu-
mented threats and obstacles to digital commerce, the
RESEARCH white paper explores user authentication, which forms
deliver security benefits and how industry stakeholders
ABI Research makes POS projection will play key roles in moving forward with its wider
adoption.
Recent research from ABI Research forecast the POS
hardware market will jump to more than $4.5 billion Fed reports on 2015 payments growth
in 2021. Revenues generated from a combination of
traditional POS and mPOS systems are expected to come According to a Federal Reserve study of U.S. non-cash
from merchants looking to enhance convenience, and payments, from 2012 to 2015, credit and debit (including
foster new experiences and transaction choices. Findings prepaid and non-prepaid) card payments continued to
also indicate mPOS vendors are already moving up the gain ground. The study reports these payments account
value chain via respective smart POS solutions and Tier for more than two-thirds of all core non-cash payments
One hardware suppliers extending product portfolio in the United States. Findings also indicated automated
entry points for lower-tiered merchants. "Arguably, clearing house payments grew modestly over the same
despite hype, mPOS did not yet eat into the traditional period and check payments declined at a slower rate
POS market as many industry experts initially hoped," than in the past.
said Phil Sealy, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "This
is reinforced by the continual emphasis on aggressive Paragon predicts 2017 payment trends
hardware pricing strategies in a bid to gain market
share among low-tier merchants, while shifting focus Paragon Application Systems, provider of simulation,
to longer-term reoccurring revenue opportunities via configuration, certification, performance and end-to-
services, analytics, and fraud management." end testing solutions for the financial services industry,
issued predictions for 2017 payment trends. According
ATMIA issues fraud report to Paragon, 2017 will bring enhanced payments system
testing practices; the continued rise of DevOps, a col-
The ATM Industry Association's 2016 global fraud and laborative approach that bridges development, opera-
security survey revealed the percentage of respondents tions and testing; a greater emphasis on security and
reporting a general increase in ATM crime declined to 42 EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa); and an evolution
percent, down from 51 percent in 2015. The study offers (versus revolution) mindset that builds upon existing
an overview of crime facing the industry, as well as technologies.
detailed information on how to address specific threats
like ATM skimming, personal identification number RSR explores IoT in retail
compromise, deposit-related fraud, cash trapping, dis-
penser jackpotting, transaction reversal fraud, card trap- A Research Systems Research benchmark report, The
ping, eavesdropping, card data malware, shimming chip Internet of Things in Retail: Getting Beyond The Hype,
card data, network packet sniffing, along with other discusses the value of IoT as an enabling technology to
network compromises. help retailers reach out to customers and at the same
time measure the effectiveness of that outreach. To be
Conference Board Consumer effective, retailers are finding that the ultimate goal is to
Confidence Index rising deliver differentiating value to customers, and they see
IoT as yet another way to do that, the authors wrote.
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index,
conducted by The Nielsen Company LLC, posted anoth-
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