Feb
24
The digital payments business didn’t start in the late 19th century. But that’s when events were set in motion that would eventually bring us to last week’s press release from Fiserv, which happens to be where I’m employed. More on the press release in a moment.
In 1884, coal merchant John Henry Patterson bought the company that was making them-thar newfangled mechanical “incorruptible cashiers,” as they were called at the time, and founded the National Cash Register Company, better known as NCR.
Basically an adding machine with a cash drawer, the cash register’s initial, principle benefit was fraud detection: owners now had a way to tell when employees were helping themselves to the till. Notwithstanding the machine’s utility, initial sales were slow. For one thing, the machines weren’t cheap. For another, they required owners to make procedural changes, and the roadblock known as human inertia is not to be underestimated. But in time cash registers became not just common but needful for the sort of recordkeeping increasingly required by law.
For the next 80 or so years, cash registers changed in materials and ornamentation, some becoming collectibles, but the basic adding-machine-with-cash drawer concept remained static. In the 1970s, electronic cash registers ushered in a period of rapid evolution. Various scanners appeared and disappeared. Some read product and coupon codes, others read credit cards—and now NFC readers have gone from novelty to near-necessity. (“I can’t tap and pay here?” I recently overheard a Kroger customer say. “What century is it here?”)
Today we see cash registers that, instead of adding machines, look like tablets on a swivel stand mounted atop a cash drawer. I suspect that the main reason they look like that is that, well, that’s what they are. And with the “cash” in “cash register” fast becoming obsolete, “terminal” has all but taken over as the new term.
Every advance that takes hold in point-of-sale technology benefits merchants directly, or indirectly by benefitting their customers. Otherwise, Adam Smith’s invisible hand would brush them aside. But they also represent something of a burden to merchants, for every advance requires a capital investment either to replace or upgrade equipment.
Which brings me back to Fiserv’s press release:
In a move that is expected to boost the worldwide use of smartphones and tablets as point-of-sale terminals, First Data, now part of Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV), is enabling merchants to use their own devices to accept payments of any amount without any additional hardware.
… This simplifies payment acceptance by allowing merchants to accept PIN-based contactless transactions without the need for a separate card reader or PIN-entry device, opening new market opportunities for merchants and allowing even micro-businesses to accept non-cash payments.
I can only imagine the relief this promises for merchants beleaguered by the costs of upgrades and replacements.
The Fiserv product was “developed jointly with Visa, Samsung, and PayCore.” If you’re eager to give it a try, you’ll need to wait until it emerges from testing. Either that, or add to your travel plans. I hear Poland is nice this time of year:
Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, recently completed the first PIN on mobile payment via the app-based solution. Following security testing, the solution, developed jointly with Visa, Samsung, and PayCore, is being piloted in Poland, with plans to expand in the EMEA and APAC regions.
Should Poland prove too daunting a detour from your daily commute, there are myriad places at home to experience other varieties of Fiserv technology. Trouble is, Fiserv tech tends operate to several layers behind the scenes, so end users don’t know it’s there. Neither do most merchants. Fiserv is one of one the most relied-on payments facilitators you’re never heard of.
Permit me to tip Fiserv’s hand just a little more. Next time you dine out, if the check arrives bearing a QR card to pay from the table using Apple Pay, chances are you’re using Fiserv’s Scan to Pay. It is …
… a first of its kind feature available with the Clover® platform from Fiserv, Inc. … Developed to expedite the payments experience in response to consumers’ increasing expectations for speed and convenience, Scan to Pay … [allows] a guest to pay a bill and tip within seconds using their iPhone and Apple Pay. Scan to Pay … does not require the download of an additional app.
It makes sense for Fiserv to lead the charge (pun intended) at both ends of the digital transaction. There’d be little point to keeping financial institutions and other verticals on the cutting edge of digital payments without keeping merchants on their customers on the cutting edge as well. Something about ensuring the chain has no weak links.