The European Commission has granted final approval to Visa Inc.’s planned acquisition of Visa Europe, with the transaction expected to close by the end of this month, Visa Inc. announced.
The Finnish government and Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) have teamed up to launch a new prepaid platform offering cards for use by the country’s prison inmates. Rolled out in May, the program makes prepaid cards available to prisoners upon arrival at prisons throughout Finland.
The theft earlier this year of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve has caught the attention of more Congressional investigators. The chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), has given New York Federal Reserve officials until June 14 to turn over documents related to the incident.
A technical outage of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud this weekend left many customers of Australian banks unable to use cards, ATMs and Eftpos terminals. The banks affected include Westpac, ME Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Some also pointed the finger of blame at payment providers such as First Data. Just a […]
It’s difficult to avoid writing about distributed ledger technologies, so we won’t. Last month Australian Craig Wright claimed to be the elusive inventor of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Displaying uncharacteristic scepticism, many mainstream media outlets doubted his claims. Whether it’s true or not, the story attracted great interest. Distributed ledger, blockchain (some argue the two are […]
The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Visa Europe by Visa Inc. This concludes all regulatory approvals required for this deal to go ahead, as the Jersey and the Turkish competition authorities have already given their stamps of approval. The transaction is expected to close in Visa Inc’s fiscal Q3 2016. The takeover […]
Italian payments firm SIA has teamed with Raphaels Bank to develop and launch payment solutions in the UK and across Europe. As part of the agreement, UK-based Raphaels and SIA will offer SEPA payments services to clients through the bank’s “indirect participation” in the SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit schemes. Cristina Astore, head […]
You are the weakest link. Goodbye. Banks with inadequate cyber defences could find themselves booted off Swift’s payment network, warns Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt. The threat from Leibbrandt follows a spate of hacks. Investigators are looking at more potential computer breaches following three attacks – a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh – the biggest […]
The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), a not-for-profit fintech industry body, has added three new members to its global network. These are Misys, First Horizon and Al Rajhi Bank, the world’s largest Islamic bank. The total count of BIAN members now stands at 64, comprising banks, software and service providers, and academic partners. Hans Tesselaar, […]
Wells Fargo is poised to beat Chase Pay to the punch with a summer release of its mobile wallet. But it’s more than timing that could give the financial institution an edge in the mobile wallet competition.
Recent media reports that prepaid cards have “hidden fees” simply because card packaging doesn’t follow the format contained in the CFPB’s proposed prepaid accounts rule are misleading and misinformed. Of course, the industry is waiting for the final rule before making standardized disclosure changes.
We’ve been hearing a lot about the demise of MCX since it announced yet another launch delay of its CurrentC app to focus on deals with financial institutions. While this move is clearly a pivot for MCX, it’s way too early to call the organization dead. In fact, we should be calling MCX a roaring success.
With the dollar down and prepaid use up in Canada, the U.S.’s top trading partner presents fertile ground for expansion.
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Russian payment platform Qiwi is planning to create a blockchain consortium with the nation’s largest banks as its members. According to Russian publication Izvestia, Qiwi will develop standards for the application of blockchain and it has invited B&N Bank, Alfa Bank and Sberbank to join. Dmitry Kashtanov, head of digital business at B&N Bank, says […]
For card manufacturers like CPI Card Group, the U.S. transition to EMV continues to be a top priority. But broader trends like the rise of e-commerce and wearables also are shaping a business that goes well beyond plastic.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), striving to overcome inefficiencies and profitability that’s historically been much more often in the red than in the black, is exploring the use of blockchain technology to improve current services, provide new services and improve operations.
Consumer fraud concerns and the popularity of mobile messaging apps likely will secure prepaid a firm spot in future commerce, according to Martin Koderisch, a manager at Edgar, Dunn and Company (EDC) during a recent Webinar entitled “Prepaid Payments in the Digital Age.”
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten steadily has been expanding its presence in the U.S.—and the company’s recent filing for a money transmitter license in California could indicate ambitions for adding new financial services and P2P payments components to its U.S. platform.
PayPal has filed a US patent application for a modular payment module that accepts Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The application names Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin; and sets out the physical characteristics of the module. It says: “The module includes a chassis which has a modular device connector. A payment database in the chassis stores […]
SETL, the institutional payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain, has launched its OpenCSD platform. The blockchain-powered platform, SETL’s first commercial offering, enables any market participant to commission and run a permissioned registry service for payments, settlement and clearing of cash and other “financial instruments”. It has been benchmarked to “settle billions of transactions a […]
PayPal is suspending business in Turkey from 6 June as it has failed to get a new licence for its services. The US company says the decision will affect “tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of consumers”. PayPal did issue two separate statements to TechCrunch. The first was very similar to the […]
Building on a partnership that began three years ago, UnionPay announced that U.S. travelers headed to China have a new payment option—UnionPay Gift Cards.
Wirecard’s flurry of activity continues as the German payment services and technology firm joins with Norway-based program manager Paygoo to launch a reloadable prepaid MasterCard, to be distributed through one of Europe’s largest convenience store chains, Reitan Convenience.
Student Loans Company (SLC), a large government-owned lender in the UK, is believed to have halted its IT renovation project as it puts the contract with the supplier under review. SLC embarked on this massive project in early 2014 – awarding the contract to HCL. HCL bid jointly with Deloitte and Misys. HCL would be […]
PayPal will shut down its business in Turkey on June 6 after regulators there denied the online payment processing service a new license.
Software code used in recent attacks on banks—including a high-profile Bangladesh attack that resulted in the theft of approximately $81 million—comes from the North Korean government, according to security experts.
Oman Arab Bank (OAB) has selected BPC Banking Technologies’ SmartVista suite for its payment business. SmartVista will replace the existing legacy platform, ACI Worldwide’s Open2. BPC says following a review and bid process, OAB selected its suite over ACI Worldwide and HPS. Fahd Amjad, GM retail banking at Oman Arab Bank, says the partnership with […]
CIMB Bank, in partnership with MasterCard, has launched its Corporate Card Solutions in Malaysia, a new addition to its suite of cash management products. The solutions include the corporate card and purchasing card which offer automated processes and real-time reporting; and a new virtual card solution for supply chain requirements. Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, […]
Visa Europe says three billion contactless transactions were made across Europe on Visa cards and payment-enabled devices in the year to 30 April. This leap nearly triples that of the same period in the previous year. Tristan Kirchner, executive director, product management at Visa Europe, says it’s “extraordinary growth” and it’s due to the work […]
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans an overhaul of the country’s ATMs to enable the processing of EMV chip and PIN cards by 2017. The RBI says while India’s POS infrastructure accepts and processes EMV chip and PIN cards, the ATM infrastructure, “on the whole”, continues to process card transactions based on data from […]
Ipreo, a fintech firm headquartered in New York, and Misys have signed an agreement to integrate Debtdomain and Misys FusionBanking LoanIQ for syndicated loan arrangers and agents. Mutual clients of Debtdomain and FusionBanking LoanIQ have previously integrated the products, but this deal will be the “first” that is jointly developed and supported by both Ipreo […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack A fast moving chain of events. High five for Apple Pay in Singapore Big banks onboard include OCBC and Standard Chartered. NYSE launches new trading tech platform, NYSE Pillar The […]
Santander says it is the “first” UK bank to introduce blockchain for international payments through a new app. It is currently being rolled out as a staff pilot, with the intention to expand the technology “at a later date”. Sigga Sigurdardottir, head of customer and innovation at Santander, says: “The need for finance has evolved […]
Investigators are looking at more potential computer breaches following the three hacking incidents on Swift’s payment network, according to Bloomberg. The three attacks comprised a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh – the biggest cyber heist in history; Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank stopping an attempted wire fraud; and Ecuador’s Banco del Austro losing around $9 […]
Green Dot has taken to social media to apologize for service issues that go beyond its initial reporting that balance inquiries temporarily were unavailable in certain channels, following the third wave of its processing conversion to MasterCard Payment Transaction Services.
Wells Fargo will launch its mobile wallet this summer, giving consumers using Android devices a new way to pay with their Wells Fargo debit and credit cards.
The multibillion-dollar fintech boom often garners headlines for consumer-facing innovation. Three payments veterans—John Mitchell, Futeh Kao and Chermaine Hu—decided it was time to create some issuer-facing innovation. With their new company Episode Six, the team has launched a payments software platform that integrates with issuers’ existing processing infrastructure to enable customized new products, Mitchell tells Paybefore.
Wirecard Singapore, part of Wirecard Group, and NETS (Network for Electronic Transfers {Singapore}) have partnered to provide a single terminal payment solution for Singapore government agencies. The move will enable users to use their CEPAS (Contactless e-Purse Application) cards such as NETS FlashPay, EZ-Link and concession cards on one single device. Wirecard says CEPAS cards […]
Former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and independent investment fund Atairos Group are creating The Orogen Group, a New York-based company that will make controlling and other strategic investments in financial services companies and related businesses.
