Barclaycard is strengthening its position as one of the world's leading providers of digital payments with key announcements in both the UK and the US. Barclaycard US, the payments business of Barclays in the United States, announced yesterday that it has appointed Dekkers Davidson to lead and grow its mobile payments division.
Davidson will oversee all efforts to understand the US market potential of mobile payments and commerce. This will include identifying the right approaches, partnerships and technologies to leverage Barclaycard’s global leadership and experience in mobile banking and contactless technology to enable US consumers to shop and pay for things on the go and access unique shopping offers and experiences.
In a separate announcement in the UK, Barclaycard and one of the UK’s leading mobile operators, Orange, have today become the first to launch contactless mobile phone payments to UK consumers, marking what they believe will be the biggest revolution in payments since credit cards were introduced.
The UK launch builds on proven contactless payment technology with 12.9m contactless credit and debit cards already in circulation in Britain, of which over 11.4m have been issued by Barclaycard and Barclays. There are already 56,000 live Barclaycard contactless terminals across the country. Globally, Barclaycard last year managed circa £200 billion in payments for over 20 million consumers and over 240,000 business customers.
Barclaycard also launched a mobile banking service earlier this year to allow European customers to take control of their finances while on the move. As an extension of its award winning online servicing platform, mybarclaycard, the service, available across hundreds of handset models, means customers can access their accounts, check their balance and view payment or transaction history at any time by simply accessing the site through their mobile browser.
Valerie Soranno Keating, CEO of Barclaycard, said: “These exciting announcements firmly establish Barclaycard as the organisation at the forefront of delivering a simple, more interactive and more convenient payment experience for consumers and businesses. We're using digital technology to completely redefine how our customers make or take payments and also manage their money whenever they need or want to.”
“With our expertise in global payments, Barclaycard is committed to creating a new future of payments for customers across the world that will reflect the spirit of innovation which saw us launch the first credit card in the UK over forty years ago, and which still powers our business today,” she said.
Barclaycard, part of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, is a leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access short-term credit when needed.
The company is one of the pioneers of new forms of payments and is at the forefront of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting edge forms of payment for the future. It also issues credit and charge cards to corporate customers and the UK Government. Barclaycard partners with a wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or members payment options and credit.
In addition to the UK, Barclaycard operates in the United States, Europe and Africa.
Key facts published in February 2012;
- number of customers: 23.5m
- number of retailer/merchant relationships: 87,000
Barclays.com