Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment, today announced that it will demonstrate a Tap on Phone (ToP) proof of concept (PoC) – enabling secure NFC payments on consumer-off-the-shelf devices with a dedicated app – at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on 25–28 February 2019. 

Many countries around the world have become increasingly cashless societies, where contactless payments – made with bank cards, mobile wallets or wearables – have followed an exponential growth. NFC cards accounted for 4 in 10 face-to-face low-value card transactions, outside the U.S. last year¹. Thus, it makes sense for banks and acquirers to provide their micro-merchant customers with simple and cost-effective solutions to accept these payment methods on a device they already use daily, i.e. their smartphone or tablet. Against this backdrop, mobile POS have flourished over the past years and will move gradually towards PIN on Mobile and Tap on Phone technology. This is part of a general trend in our industry: the long-term shift from pure hardware to more software-based payment acceptance solutions. 

This cardholder authentication based on Tap on Phone illustrates Ingenico’s capacity to transfer its core expertise in secure payment acceptance from hardware to software, from secure POS terminals to secure payment apps, downloadable on consumer devices. It relies on a kernel, a payment app and on back-end monitoring to ensure the device is as secure as traditional payment terminals. This protocol is still in early stages of development as the PCI council has not released their certification specifications for it yet. Once they have done so, Tap on Phone will complement our traditional POS offer to help our bank and acquirer clients address new segments of micro-merchants, who only have an occasional need for a payment device as an alternative to cash. This technology reduces acquirers’ logistics costs and upfront investments, enabling them to develop new business models, based on pay per use, for instance.

The Tap on Phone proof of concept we’re presenting at MWC demonstrates Ingenico’s capacity to apply to software-enabled solutions its long-standing experience and expertise in securing card-present transactions on traditional hardware POS.’ said Michel Léger, EVP Innovation at Ingenico Group. ‘It's the harbinger of a simple and secure payment acceptance solution designed for our banks and acquirers clients with micro-merchants in mind.’