In the United States, mobile
payments and mobile banking is ever growing and popular with those who own
smartphones. Official applications from Bank of America and Chase for example
allows you to manage your bank accounts and deposit checks instantly. With
mobile payment services such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay,
consumers that have smartphones with Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities
to pay retailers with their credit cards on their phones instead of swiping their
plastic credit cards. It takes one tap against the NFC sensor, and the bill is
payed for. These two mobile trends are brilliant ideas, and the five biggest
banks in Switzerland wants more than just an application.
According to Reuters, Switzerland
banks UBS, Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, and ZBK have been in talks
with top retailers Coop, Migros, and Swisscom about a “joint mobile payments
platform for the country.” In talks with these retailers and a financial
infrastructure group called SIX, the goal is for a digital payment system that
works for consumers that belong to these banks, and in a sense are trying to
create a new standard of paying in the country. Instead of separate pay systems
like Apple Pay and Android Pay, it would one universal pay system regardless of
whichever device you have.
The report also says that
PostFinance and SIX have their own payment systems, but I like the idea of a
mobile payment system that can be used with any mobile device. All I would have
to do is to access my bank account and connect it to the pay system. Also, if I
decide to switch devices and/or banks, there would less hassle to switch over
and use the system right away. This will also make it easier for banks and
retailers to track your spending in order to provide the most accurate bank
statements and for retailers to give out smarter discounts to customers.
This kind of universal system would
make data collecting easier for banks and retailers, and while the list of
partner banks and retailers of Switzerland will grow, what about the consumers
that are not affiliated with these banks and/or do not possess a mobile device
able to make digital payments? Even in America, there are plenty of people
without a smartphone that cannot use a mobile payment system. If Switzerland
were to make mobile payments a new standard, how will they be able to convince
those without mobile payment access to obtain this access? Another worry might
be if the system ever goes down and people are unable to pay due to not having
another form of payment.
This is a great idea that will be
tested over the next couple of months, but do not expect a sudden change
anytime soon.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-swiss-mobile-idUSKCN0WW101
Switching to a more electronic payment system comes with its ups and downs. For poorer people without smartphones it is a major disadvantage, but the rise of mobile banking, paypal, venmo ect, electronic forms of currency is looking more and more like a thing of the future. There are a lot of added benefits to making payments electronically that were not mentioned in the original article. Cash can be harder to trace, but electronic payments would be recorded. Criminal organizations would have a harder time laundering money and making payments if we switched completely to an electronic currency system. Also, people wouldn’t have to worry about loosing cash, having their obsolete wallets stolen, and the government would save on printing money. I do not see this happening relatively soon because not everyone has access to smartphones and the internet, but with how fast the technology is spreading I would not be surprised if a complete switch to electronic currency happens in my lifetime. I like what the Swiss banks are doing because I view it as monetary progress. If a switch were to occure, banks would have to be the first people on board and why wouldn’t they be? The hardest part of their job is having the right amount of cash on hand and keeping it safe. Electronic currency would make everyone’s lives easier.
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