NetSpend 2014 Annual Report Download - page 7

*Juniper Research, Digital Payments Strategies Online, Mobile & Contactless 2014-2019, published June 24, 2014.
encouraging, and we will continue to engage
actively with existing clients and new prospects to
give consumers the solutions best designed for them.
Entering 2015, we will continue to fine-tune our sales
activities and areas of focus to ensure we drive future
quality revenue and margins internationally.
Digital innovation is core to our issuing and acquiring
clients’ strategies, and we’re making it easy to access
third-platform technologies like mobile, social, big data
and the cloud. We’re also making the omnichannel
experience seamless no matter which communication
method consumers choose. Our business and IT
strategy
— Surround® — announced in November
2014 will power the next generation of digital
innovation through a suite of new technology and
product offerings. It will also provide our issuing clients
a better way to manage their business and service
their customers. Surround brings into play more
open platforms accessible to third parties using
application program interfaces and other tools,
resulting in greater flexibility to exponentially
enhance the customer experience
— a prime
example of People-Centered Payments in action.
Businesses
Putting people at the center of our business means
providing them a choice in the way they pay,
while paying keen attention to important issues
such as safety and security. We supported this goal
by implementing chip cards in the United States
and beyond based on EMV standards. In light
of the October 2015 liability shift deadline for
merchants to accept EMV payments, we are
ramping up our capacity to produce EMV cards
as market demand increases. We have also
been communicating with merchants about
what the upcoming EMV timeline means and
what action they must take.
By understanding our clients and their customers’
needs, we help them grow their business with
integrated services that deliver more value and
gives them a better understanding of their business
landscape. We saw traction in sales of some of
our value-added products like TSYS Merchant
InsightsSM, which provides merchants with analytics
in card-based revenue, transaction history, online
reputation monitoring, social media activity and
competitor benchmarking.
Another landmark in 2014 was our support of Apple
Pay as a partner for merchants, app developers and
issuing banks. This required agility and industry
leadership, which allowed us to join the ranks of the
industry’s most influential stakeholders to make this
new innovative payment method a reality. Apple Pay
stands to redefine consumers’ relationships with
the POS, and payment card information will be more
secure and private for purchases made in apps and
via near-field communication (NFC)-enabled POS
terminals. In 2014, commerce initiated with mobile
phones and tablets is expected to total $114 billion
in the United States alone, according to Juniper
Research*
— numbers that indicate an opportunity
to expand and heighten our role in the digital market-
place. While still in the early stages, we believe Apple
Pay will help drive further innovation across the industry
and allow us to capture more payments that currently
are made with cash and checks.
We believe that in the future, merchant service
providers will become much more specialized,
with solutions that focus on merchant verticals to
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