Smart Technology Solutions Limited and Vodat International have once again successfully collaborated to jointly provide a managed payment solution, which reduces PCI DSS without the need to install a PCI accredited Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) solution, to another large UK retailer.
Smart Technology Solutions Limited (STS) recently played host to a number of senior representatives from some of its most valued partners during a day of sun, food, drink and cricket.
Guests were invited to watch Surrey CCC take on Glamorgan CCC on the 3rd exciting day of the annual Cricket Festival held at Guildford, as part of STS’ 2015 Partner Day event. The idea behind the day was to thank STS partners for their continued support of STS as a company, and the products and services that it delivers.
Here at STS, as a leader and specialist in payments software, it is great to see the results of the recent statistical analysis of card payments. The results show that in 2014, over 2,050 million chip payment cards were issued around the globe coming just three years after the figure exceeded the one billion mark, back in 2011.
This significant increase comes in a large part from the growth of Chinese and US markets, with the US card issuers racing to meet the liability shift deadline, set for November 2015.
October 2015 marked the end of another very successful year for STS. Having just turned 18, it is encouraging to see the company has once again exceeded its annual target, providing a positive start to the new financial year. We’ve also recently taken on 4 new developers, thus continuing our pledge to invest in our development team as part of our product led approach.
Smart Technology Solutions (STS Payments) is very pleased to announce it has successfully completed the EMVCo Level 2 re-approval of 3 existing PIN entry devices, extending support for at least another 3 years and further confirming that 2015 has been a fantastic year for the company.
Following the STS kernel upgrades to meet the latest EMVCo standards, the 3 devices – the HTEC Hydra OPT Mk II unattended terminal, Ingenico iPP350 and Verifone Vx820 were sent to TUV test labs where they underwent numerous test cases to verify its conformance to the latest EMV 4.3 specification.
In a bid to ensure its product roadmap tracks the market demands of its partners and end-customers, STS Payments has once again released a product survey to help decide how to build its new Smart TMS (Terminal Management System).
Following initial discussions with partners, STS had already identified a need for smarter Terminal Management Systems within the industry; however it needed the input of those with the requirements to determine what functionality would be useful, how it should be provided, who should operate it and ultimately whether STS should invest in developing it.
The payments landscape is rapidly evolving with regulation and technological innovation combining to change consumer and retailer behaviour.
There can be no doubting that Europe's payments eco-system is currently undergoing a major transformation, with financial crises, regulatory enforcement, technological innovation, and changing consumer and retailer behaviour all colliding to form a new payments landscape.
In today's society, the obesity epidemic is everywhere. Even in the world of payments!
I admit it. I'm addicted to the TV's 'The Biggest Loser'. Watching people challenging their weight problems with diet and exercise is an enthralling way to spend an hour and a half, especially when I'm sitting on the couch eating biscuits!
Thanks to PCI and EMV we have come along way from the days when both retailers and criminals had complete control over customer card data, but I can't help thinking when is enough, enough? As we all know there is a danger of both under and over insuring your property so shouldn't retailers be approaching PCI with the same caution? More importantly who is it that decides you have enough security in place?
Last month I watched the 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall with great interest. It certainly was a monumental step in the amalgamation of Europe on an economic and political scale, but it did make me wonder how close we are to a consolidated Europe when it comes to payments.
