We've noted on several occasions that banks would be wise to play a stronger leadership role in the frenzied race to develop next-generation payment services.

They would be well-served to be more than passive participants. They have every incentive to control the technology, the branding and ultimately the revenue source. If this does not happen--if they are relegated to mere partners to the leaders--it will rank as a massive lost opportunity.

This was underscored again by a survey by Market Strategies International that found banks are the most trusted companies when it comes to providing mobile payment service in the critical 18 to 34 age group. Just over 80 percent of respondents who identified themselves as early technology adopters put their bank first. As for the others, Visa was favored by  74 percent of respondents; PayPal,  66 percent; MasterCard, 65 percent; American Express, 61 percent; Discover Financial Services, 54 percent; Facebook, 53 percent; Yahoo, 31 percent; Google and Apple, 18 percent each, and Microsoft and "mobile-phone carriers" in general at 17 percent each.

Does this surprise you? It certainly speaks to the huge opportunity banks have and the huge challenges they face when pondering the ISIS coalition and the technology companies aiming to break in. My sense is that we'll see banks get more aggressive about delivering their own services. Perhaps solutions such as the one from mFoundry, which allows banks to offer their own branded NFC services, will prove to be their ticket. 

For more:
- here's a BTN article

Related articles:
Google folds initial Checkout service   
Multiple digital wallet standards to thrive?   
Is PayPal the new leader in alternative payments?