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Johannesburg - Fridges and cars are set to join plastic cards as future payment devices.
This is according to Johan Gerber, the group head of Processing Product Management at MasterCard, who was in Johannesburg last week.
Gerber told Fin24 that future payments won’t be tied down to form factors such as credit or debit cards because rapid developments are taking place in the payment technology space.
In the US, Apple Pay already enables iPhone 6 users to make payments thanks to Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Meanwhile, African countries such as Kenya have experienced surging demand for mobile money transfer technologies such as M-Pesa.
And more devices are forecast to become digital payment machines in future such as cars' dashboards and fridges.
"We're talking about how every device is becoming a commerce device where one of these days your fridge is going to start ordering your milk when it sees it running out or asks you if you want some more orange juice, because it sees you're running out,” Gerber told Fin24.
"We see our role as just being the facilitator of making that as easy and a great experience as possible and obviously within the environment of keeping it safe and secure - and that piece is very, very important,” Gerber said.
Security
Gerber, who is a financial security industry veteran, told Fin24 that there is still “going to be a journey to get there” with regard to ensuring full security for other payment devices such as fridges or cars.
He told Fin24, though, that today’s EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) tech or chip and PIN cards are set to “blaze” the way forward for a greater number of payment mediums in future.
EMV technology is among the safest payment tool as it ensures a dynamic method of payment via the likes of a cryptogram: a variable that ensures safer payments when compared to ‘static’ magnetic strip cards, for example.
Future payment mediums then could be ‘layered’ on top of EMV technology, said Gerber.
“So, we're looking at integrating the same level and security of strength that's in an EMV card irrespective of the form factor. And if you think of things like Apple Pay, that's really what it does. It brings that EMV strength into the rest of the ecosystem,” Gerber said.
"There's going to be a journey to get there.
"The form factor will become irrelevant, the strength will be consistent irrespective of the channel through which the consumer transacts.
"We're looking at seamlessly integrating that security so that irrespective of the channel, device, car, wearable that it has got the same strength of security,” he added.
Payment technology companies such as MasterCard, though, are expecting criminals to switch focus from cracking plastic cards to stealing from future payment devices such as phones.
"Like anything else, criminals will find some way to attack,” he said.
"As the risk increases, you will layer in certain technologies," he added, explaining that a biometric layer, for instance, could sit atop an EMV system.
MasterPass
Standard Bank last year partnered with MasterCard to unveil the technology payment company's MasterPass offering in South Africa.
MasterPass enables consumers to store all their MasterCard or other branded credit, debit or cheque card information, and shipping and billing address details in one place without needing to enter these details all the time when shopping online.
Standard Bank was the first local bank to offer a digital wallet powered by MasterPass via the Standard Bank MasterPass app for Apple, Android and BlackBerry.
Online merchants such as Takealot.com were also among the first in the country to accept MasterPass.
However, Gerber has illustrated to Fin24 how MasterPass could also work with biometric data such as fingerprints and facial recognition.
Watch the video below:
Listen to the full interview with Johan Gerber:
