Hot topics
The payments industry is currently experiencing a period of rapid change. It is becoming far more complex and confusing. Payments used to be a niche and specialist field but now they have become mainstream and have high strategic importance. Thanks to the greater attention of fraudsters security protection has needed to be strengthened and this will be an ongoing task. Stringent compliance and certifications are the norms now demanded and we will have to get used to them.
We are seeing increased regulatory interest, challenges to the international card networks and the arrival of new entrants. There are new card technologies, transaction types and acceptance devices to be supported, plus a whole host of new alternative payment methods.
Here at STS, we keep abreast of all of these changes and continue to innovate. We help our partners and customers understand the changes, their issues and impact, and work with them to determine the most appropriate options to be pursued.
Here you can find our thoughts on some of the key hot topics. As an independent company we are able to offer an unbiased viewpoint. We welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics with you. Please do get in touch and let us know how we can help.
Airports and airlines globally are upgrading their IT infrastructure in order to improve customer service, increase flexibility, process ancillary revenues, reduce costs and enhance data security. Investments are being made in key technologies, including payments acceptance systems, in order to achieve these objectives.Common Use infrastructure
The European Payment Services Directive (PSD2) requires payment users to be securely authenticated in order to enhance protection of individuals and reduce the amount of fraud occurring. These requirements are spelt out in the PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) issued by the European Banking Authority and require compliance with this new law by the 14th September 2019.
Criminals are increasingly targeting point of sale terminals in order to conduct financial fraud. They have recognised the high value of payment card data and seen that many retailers are not paying sufficient attention to protecting their estate of payment systems and sensitive customer information.
The way consumers shop and wish to pay for goods and services have changed radically over the last decade but the industry has not kept pace and adapted to these changes. At STS we believe that a new payments architecture is necessary. Here are reasons why we feel this is needed and the benefits it would bring to merchants and all payment industry stakeholders.
Consumers are demanding an increased range of payment acceptance methods. They want more than just cash and Visa/Mastercard plastic card payment options. Retail merchants have recognised this customer need and realise that in the current extremely competitive market they have to respond.
Airlines increasingly rely on ancillary revenue streams to meet their revenue and profitability targets. They look to upsell customers at any and every opportunity. This takes place before the departure date, at the airport and also whilst on-board.
The way businesses authenticate their customers when goods and services are purchased is changing. Older authentication and verification methods no longer offer sufficient levels of security protection and are being targeted by criminals.
Merchants and deployers of payment systems no longer need to be reliant on terminal manufacturers for the systems that administer their estate of payment terminals. Specialist payment software supplier STS has launched PayOp to provide merchants, PSPs, ISOs and acquirers with manufacturer independence.
With the maturity of Chip and PIN technology there is now a far greater diversity of payment terminal models available on the market for retailers to choose from. These are available from a ra
Retail merchants, and Payment Service Providers that serve them, are increasingly paying greater attention to the subject of operational management for their payment systems. Once the management of payment terminals was regarded as a boring back room task that focused largely on initial software rollout and device deployment, attracting little ongoing attention or investment.
Large and mid sized UK retailers who have invested in mobile point of sale technology in-store saw positive results during the recent busy Christmas trading period.These retailers installed Mobile POS technology for a variety of use cases including:
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Why are retailers moving to the Cloud?
PCI DSS
Background to EMV
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