Dublin-based 3V Transaction Services Ltd., which specializes in issuing, processing and management of prepaid card programs, will be the foundation of a new issuing division of SafeCharge, which acquired the technology provider for €14.5 million (US$17.4 million).
As you get back to business in 2015, bookmark this catalog of the biggest stories from the past 12 months as well as insights into the future of payments in the New Year.
The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is expected to publish tomorrow its NPRM in the Federal Register that would create a certification program to replace the temporary certification program in place now for access to the Death Master File (DMF).
Seven of every 10 shoppers plan to buy gift cards this holiday season and, among them, 92 percent of shoppers plan to spend either the same amount or more on gift cards than they spent last year, according to an interim holiday spending report by Stored Value Solutions (SVS).
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Japanese telecom and Internet firm Softbank are in the midst of preliminary talks to work together, instead of compete, to capture a sizable chunk of India’s consumer Internet market, according to a report.
Littleton, Colo.-based card producer CPI Card Group has received the Center of Excellence award for the second consecutive year at the Smart Card Alliance’s annual member meeting.
Fiserv Inc., a global provider of financial services technology solutions, has received awards in two categories at the Banking Technology Awards, held in London.
The CFPB’s NPRM on prepaid accounts is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow.
The N.J. General Assembly last week approved by a vote of 73-1 the ZIP code repeal bill (A-3480), which eliminates the collection of consumer ZIP code information for gift cards at the POS.
The mobile payments piece of Starbucks’ partnership with Square has ended.
Industry experts earlier this year predicted abundant M&A activity in the payments industry, and they are being proved correct right to the very end of 2014.
Members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and European Union Council negotiators yesterday agreed to cap the interchange fees on cross-border and domestic card-based payments, ensuring uniform rules across the EU.
Store openings on Thanksgiving Day and the typical headline-seeking weekend deals by retailers helped somewhat during the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season this year.
Transit systems throughout the world continue to adopt electronic payment systems—the latest among them Toronto and Indonesian province Jakarta.
The mega-chain goes mobile with many partners and a mobile app of its own with two key ingredients—convenience and loyalty.
Changing times call for new priorities. Clients want a partner with a nimble organization and a flexible and feature-rich technology stack, but not at the expense of business and operational reliability.
Financial services providers have amassed mountains of data about customers, but what’s it worth? Real value comes from the analysis and timely application of knowledge through push marketing campaigns and ongoing product improvements.
Apple Pay’s Touch ID application has pushed biometrics payments authentication into the mainstream. But biometrics authentication goes beyond fingerprint sensors, and voice biometrics authentication is one of the best ways to thwart identity fraud.
The CFPB is calling for greater transparency from colleges and financial institutions when they enter agreements to offer prepaid or debit products to students.
First Data Inc. and Verifone are helping U.S. merchants reduce their exposure to large-scale consumer payment data breaches and expedite merchant acceptance of EMV-enabled credit and debit cards.
Apple in recent weeks has become somewhat more accommodating to consumers who use PayPal or Google Wallet. For example, consumers in the U.S. and U.K. now may use PayPal when making purchases on Apple’s online store.
NCR Corp. today announced the NCR Silver POS system now includes a feature enabling merchants to easily add LevelUp, the mobile payments and loyalty network, to customer payment options.
Widespread use of fingerprint authentication for financial transactions on mobile devices could start taking off from early next year as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Google, Samsung, Lenovo, Microsoft, Alipay and others adopt a new authentication standard through their joint project, the FIDO Alliance, which has just published its specifications and launched its first server.
American Express has launched a research pilot to study what marketing tactics and behavioral triggers can convince cardholders to save using its Serve prepaid account software platform.
The growth in consumer popularity of mobile bill pay features continues unabated as 27 million U.S. households with access to the Internet are paying at least one bill from their phones, an increase of nearly 70 percent compared with 2013, according to The Seventh Annual Billing Household Survey from Fiserv.
Paybefore Award-winning Rȇv Worldwide is continuing its focus on multicurrency travel cards with its latest launch in India.
If Maxwell the talking pig can show a police officer his proof of Geico insurance on a smartphone, why not a driver’s license?
The US is finally adopting EMV after an eventful 12 months in which barriers have been overcome. Merchant reluctance is diminishing, good progress is being made, and the ‘EMV train’ is now picking up speed, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
Overall holiday sales figures may be a mixed bag so far this year, but gift card sales for the season are on track to hit news sales peaks in the U.S. and the U.K., aided by an uptick in online sales, plus growing popularity for digital gift cards, new data suggest.
The financially underserved market in the U.S. generated approximately $103 billion in fee and interest revenue in 2013, based on consumer usage volume of $1.3 trillion in financial products and services, according to a new study from the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and Core Innovation Capital.
After a strong showing in consumer bitcoin spending on Black Friday weekend, Blade Financial yesterday launched what it’s calling the first B2B payment processing platform that extends traditional debit card programs to bitcoin businesses.
Blackhawk Network this week announced a new distribution deal with the U.S. Postal Service, introducing the company’s gift card malls to select post offices in time for the holiday season.
NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based electronic payments association, and the European Central Bank (ECB) independently are taking steps to speed up the payments process with the goal of same-day settlement.
During the feverish shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, even bitcoin had its mad moment.
With gift cards expected to be a top seller this season, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Sprint, GiftCards.com and CashStar are making it even easier for consumer to do their holiday gift card shopping online and on their phones.
U.K.-based mobile money provider Monitise plc has signed a 7-year agreement with Virgin Money to develop digital banking products and services for Virgin Money customers.
Russia is scheduled to begin testing its new National Payment System (NPS) with eight banks next week, and the platform is scheduled to become fully operational in the first quarter of next year.
Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, the financial services industry has faced challenges like never before. Headlines around bankers’ bonuses, PPI miss-selling and Libor manipulation have led to a lack of trust from consumers. In response, traditional banks need to join the new generation of financial service providers and their customers in their new natural habitat – online and on mobile.
Faster Payments, the UK payment clearing system, is planning to expand access to more payment service providers in the coming year. The organisation has set out its plans in a new Whitepaper, which explores possible cooperation with the Bank of England to develop new settlement models for non-bank payment service providers.
The FFIEC’s recently updated BSA/AML Examination Manual is emphasizing—as it has in the past—that the buck stops with issuing banks in terms of ultimate responsibility for BSA/AML compliance for prepaid access products, regardless of agreements or contracts with other players in the value chain.
