Barclaycard, Barclays, HSBC Merchant Services and Skrill are among the companies shortlisted in the Payments Innovation of the Year category at the 2013 FStech Awards. The Awards will take place on Thursday, 17 April at the London Lancaster Hotel.

Barclaycard is shortlisted for PayBand, a silicon NFC wristband which produced impressive results at the Barclaycard Wireless Festival 2012 by driving more contactless than chip and PIN transactions at point of sale and with 93 per cent of users open to a fully cashless festival. Barclays has been recognised for Pingit, Europe’s first P2P service for sending and receiving money using mobile phone numbers.

HSBC Merchant Services is in the running because in 2012 it became the first UK acquirer to fully roll-out an in-house solution for merchants to accept UnionPay cards, making Chinese consumer card spending in the UK easier. It worked closely with business partners, developing the necessary software and hardware to enable Chinese consumers to pay the same way they do at home. Skrill is nominated for Skrill 1-Tap, which provides customers with a simple way of sending money to their favorite merchants with just a tap of their phone, tablet or desktop device. Merchants can offer customers the opportunity to pay for goods with one tap on any device, rather than having to re-enter login details or credit card information.

Also shortlisted are Banca Monte Paschi/SIX Payment Services, CashFlows, CQR Payment Group and OmniPay. In November 2012, Banca Monte Paschi Belgio launched the world’s first PaschiCombo card, a dual Maestro (debit) and MasterCard (credit) display card with added contactless payments and secure e-commerce functionalities. SIX provides the payments processing technology behind the card.

CashFlows has developed an online financial service known as the CashFlows Account. This is pitched as the first of its kind in the industry and has been designed to save businesses valuable time and money by consolidating banking and credit and debit card processing services into a single integrated account. CQR Payment Group is behind Kalixa, an e-wallet linked to multiple devices (card, online and mobile) offering consumers one account, one wallet, one way to pay, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. It offers two critical advantages for the consumer: total control over their money and travel benefits. And last but not least is the OmniPay multi-currency processing platform which aims to provide a single global integrated end-to-end solution for all required countries, regions, channels and currencies.

The winner will be announced during a gala dinner at the London Lancaster Hotel, taking place on Thursday, 17 April. To view the full Awards shortlist, visit: http://www.fstech.co.uk/awards/shortlist.php

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