Hoping to encourage fintech innovation, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has issued a 17-page document that offers guidelines for how financial services firm can use outsourced Web-hosted services without running afoul of regulators.
A transatlantic data-transfer deal has won approval from European Union officials, giving official life to what’s known at the Privacy Shield pact.
EMVCo, the global payment specification body, and the FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium developing open, interoperable authentication standards, are to collaborate and review how FIDO can support EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) payment use cases. A “key aim” of the initiative is to investigate mobile payments using on-device authenticators, such as biometrics, as they seek […]
Walmart has rolled out its mobile payment service to all of its 4,600 U.S. stores. And although some analysts are skeptical the service will attract shoppers, the retailer is reporting a 45 percent jump in transactions already.
The government of Saudi Arabia has banned in-person sales of one of the leading online payment products in the Middle East over concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency—the country’s central bank—has barred the sale of CASHU prepaid cards through local agents, though consumers still may purchase cards from the company’s Website.
A months-long investigation that spanned from Malaysia to 14 European countries resulted last week in the bust of a credit card fraud ring allegedly responsible for approximately €5 million (US$5.5 million) in losses. The police investigation led to the arrest of 105 suspects, 29 in Malaysia and 76 in Europe.
Omni Hotels & Resorts notified customers last week that hackers accessed the chain’s POS systems and installed malware that enabled them to access payment card information. In an alert posted on its Website, Omni said it discovered the attacks on May 30, 2016, and that the malware may have operated between Dec. 23, 2015, and June 14, 2016—although most of the systems were affected during a shorter time frame, the company said.
Swift is turning to outside help as it looks to improve security on its network following a number of hacking incidents. It has engaged cyber security firms BAE Systems and Fox-IT, and created a Forensics and Customer Security Intelligence team, as it wants to investigate security incidents “within customer environments”. The move follows a spate […]
Payment provider Worldline and Luxembourg-based start-up SnapSwap have signed a partnership agreement for the latter’s mobile payment application Gloneta. Gloneta combines a mobile messenger (chat) with cross-currency transactions using blockchain. Worldline says it will “provide” secure card payments services to the new app Gloneta. Denis Kiselev, founder and CEO of SnapSwap, says: “Worldline’s expertise in […]
One million Visa cardholders in Switzerland now have access to the newly launched Apple Pay. Wirecard is now providing its clients with Apple Pay support too (see below for details). Cornèrcard and Bonuscard.ch customers will be able to use Apple Pay, which can be used at any of the over 100,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals in […]
With news on blockchain and Bitcoin appearing thick and fast, here’s a round-up of key events to save you time. In Switzerland, the city of Zug, is piloting the acceptance of Bitcoin for payments. From 1 July, residents could start to pay their taxes, fees and fines with the digital currency. The project is part […]
The key to unlocking the potential of real-time money movement is the delivery of an intuitive and seamless experience across accounts. As demand grows among early adopters—underserved consumers, millennials and those in the “gig” economy—a larger, more mainstream consumer audience will take note and engage.
US payments firm Stripe has launched “Managed Accounts” for its Stripe Connect to marketplaces in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Stripe says by using Managed Accounts, marketplaces in Europe can design “lightweight” setup flows, configure payment schedules, decide who pays fees, determine when information is collected, and more. Managed Accounts was launched […]
Sure, mobile payments are taking much of the developing world by storm, giving consumers safer and more efficient ways to handle money. But merchant acceptance lags. Here’s why, along with ideas for improvement.
Brexit likely will cause issues for major processors and cross-border acquirers for whom London has been a key European and cross-border processing hub. That’s in addition to a restricted market and reduced talent pool.
If politicians were held to the same truthfulness and disclosure standards as businesspeople, the U.K. might have avoided its regrettable decision to leave the EU.
UniRush LLC, a provider of consumer financial services, including the Visa RushCard prepaid debit card and the rapid! PayCard, has named industry veteran Ron Hynes CEO. A 2014 Pay Award Industry Achievement Winner, Hynes previously served as executive vice president of global prepaid solutions at MasterCard Worldwide and, most recently, as president of global markets at Mozido.
Finnish fintech start-up Holvi has launched a debit card, Holvi Business MasterCard. It is available to customers in Germany, Austria and Finland. This follows on from the launch of a mobile banking app for iOS and Android last summer. Holvi, which was founded in 2011, provides entrepreneurs and SMEs with a range of financial and […]
ING and Belgian bank KBC have joined forces to launch a new, integrated mobile payments and loyalty platform in Belgium. This will combine ING’s payment app Payconiq with loyalty platforms Qustomer and KBC’s CityLife. Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium, says the customer feedback it received about Payconiq and Qustomer “strengthens our conviction that as a […]
Banks in Singapore are working together on a new service that will allow users to make payments using Twitter usernames or Facebook IDs. According to the FT, a pilot is due to take place in the first quarter of 2017. Rather than entering an account number and sort code, users will be able to make […]
Following up on its promise to tighten rules for prepaid cards and virtual currencies in an effort to thwart terrorism financing and money laundering, the European Commission has released a proposal this week to lower the threshold that triggers cardholder identification requirements for prepaid cards and ban the use of anonymous prepaid cards online.
Although the overall number of prepaid card-related complaints continues to represent less than 1 percent of total complaints the CFPB receives, prepaid complaints were up 28 percent in May to 226 from 177 the previous month, according to the federal consumer protection agency’s latest monthly complaint report.
MasterCard faces a $24.5 billion class action suit in the U.K. over its cross-border interchange fees. The suit arrives two years after the European Union labeled the interchange charged by the payment card network as unfair. European interchange caps went into effect in December of 2015.
BNP Paribas Securities Services has become a direct securities participant to the US Federal Reserve through FedLine, its online financial services information and payment service. The company, a subsidiary of the BNP Paribas group, says this completes its direct connectivity to the US market on all securities instruments. BNP uses Torstone Technology’s post-trade securities and […]
Since launching a year ago, the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO) has made strides to educate and build awareness about the growing open-loop prepaid market in Canada.
Payments processor TSYS has been recognized as one of America’s most community-minded companies in The Civic 50, an initiative that identifies and recognizes companies for their commitment to improving the quality of life in the communities where they do business.
Viral Technologies, a Portland, Maine-based financial technology predictive analytics provider, recently rebranded as Acclaimed Labs.
UniCredit Bank, MasterCard and platform provider GoSwiff have launched mobile payments for Allianz-Tiriac Asigurari insurance agents in Romania. The partnership will enable Allianz-Tiriac agents to start accepting card payments with mobile point of sale (mPOS) for the insurance policies issued by the company. The firms say Allianz-Tiriac becomes the “first insurance company in Romania” to […]
Last week’s federal court rejection of a 4-year-old $5.7 billion interchange fee settlement has retailers applauding, and Visa and MasterCard gearing up for what could be years of ongoing ligation and perhaps a stop at the Supreme Court.
The U.K.’s historic decision to exit the European Union (or Brexit) last month has left many businesses speculating what the ramifications will be for them, especially e-money issuers based in the U.K. that have licenses that they passport to EU countries. Neopay, a U.K.-based e-money and payment regulatory consultancy, is hoping to assuage the jitters of new and established e-money companies in Europe with Brexit Insurance.
In a pair of legal battles that could have a ripple effect into the payments and retail sectors, Facebook and Google have invoked a recent Supreme Court decision and the U.S. Constitution to defend against claims that the companies’ facial recognition systems violate a key state biometric privacy law.
Indian payment solutions provider ItzCash Card Ltd. has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to participate in the country’s integrated bill payments platform, known as the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS).
There are three options of a road ahead for the payments industry players: 1) to carry on as they are and watch their margins erode; 2) to transform into a utility; 3) to have a long hard look at their value chain. If you choose the latter – what do you see, asks Sapient Global Markets’ Leda […]
Wirecard has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Citi Prepaid Card Services – giving it an expansion into North America. The firm says Citi Prepaid card services have launched over 2,500 client programmes, associated with global companies and brands, but primarily in North America. Subject to the usual regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to […]
When I first started travelling for my job, it wasn’t too afield. I was working in Australia so it involved trips to New Zealand, Singapore and not much more. However, in only a few years, my travel grew to where it became routine to visit the US, Germany and the UK, but with the aircraft […]
Nordic digital payments firm Nets has been selected by a Danish banking collective to launch a new NFC mobile wallet solution. The collective, known as the Bokis partnership, includes 62 banks that form the small to mid-sized banks segment of Lokale Pengeinstitutter (the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Co-operative Banks in Denmark), together […]
Panin Bank, a retail and business bank in Indonesia, has launched new digital banking products and services using Fiserv’s Mobiliti and Corillian Online. Ken Ng, director of retail banking, Panin Bank, says Fiserv has allowed it to develop an “innovative, feature-rich and integrated digital banking service that consumers have come to expect in the modern […]
Visa has filed a lawsuit against Walmart in a dispute over customers’ use of signatures or PINs to verify purchases with EMV-equipped debit cards at Walmart. Last month, Walmart sued Visa, claiming the payments network required the retailer to offer EMV debit users the option of signature or PIN verification in violation of the Durbin Amendment.
The sale will give Blackboard control of Higher One’s CASHNet platform, which provides billing and payments services to more than 700 campuses and millions of students across the U.S.
That would provide some long-awaited certainty to financial service providers and tech companies like Google and Facebook that handle consumers’ personal information.
