First National Bank (FNB) is always trying to speed things up. This time, it’s hitting the road. The bank is testing tap-to-pay options at toll gates for clients with Visa and Mastercards. If it works out, that’ll mean no more fumbling for change or handing over your card to a stranger.
The physical card is a dying breed
FNB’s head of mobile payments, Jason Viljoen, says that limited network coverage was the main reason for not rolling out a feature like this sooner. But things seem to be moving faster now, as more mobile spectrum becomes available to mobile network operators.
The good news continues. Viljoen said that although FNB was in charge of rolling out the feature, any Visa or Mastercard holder from any other bank could make use of the feature.
FNB isn’t stopping there. It has also reworked the system that handles how card details are captured and stored by the places where you swipe, tap, or manually enter card details. According to Viljoen, the new system uses a token to represent a cardholder’s card to whichever platform is asking.
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How it works is simple. Say you’re an Apple user with your FNB card and Apple Pay linked. When you tap your Apple Watch to pay for your Seattle coffee, the Apple Pay app requests a token from FNB. The bank will first check to make sure it is you that’s buying a coffee then this token, via the new system, will represent your card details to the app. FNB users will be able to control their tokens from within the app when the functionality is more widely adopted.
Unfortunately, Viljoen said, that might take a good few years. Merchants and payment platforms must first test and possibly make changes on their end before the new token framework will function correctly.
Source: MyBroadband
