MasterCard has teamed up with mobile payment solutions provider eServGlobal and Belgacom’s carrier services unit BICS to extend the capabilities of their international mobile remittance platform HomeSend. The three firms have set up a joint venture which uses the HomeSend platform, in which MasterCard will have a controlling share.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has signed a multi-year agreement with Earthport to “significantly expand Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s low value clearing capabilities globally, and to advance the efficiency of its high volume, low value payments”.
To attract the key millennial demographic, banks must look to prepaid and mobile.
Of any industry, the financial services sector might be the most contradictory when it comes to loyalty program effectiveness.
The impact of the Single Euro Payments Area will result in a new marketplace where bigger banks will be forced into stronger competition and smaller banks forced to cultivate their ‘local bank’ credentials.
In a recent press release, the CFPB called on financial institutions to “voluntarily” disclose to the public its financial product marketing agreements made with colleges and universities.
As we approach year-end, the Canadian federal government has introduced three items of significance to federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs).
Electronic gifting provider Loop Commerce has landed funding from PayPal Inc., with the payment giant making a Series A investment in the San Francisco-based startup.
Blackhawk Network has inked a deal with Coinstar that will give consumers the option of receiving Blackhawk e-gifts in return for change cashed in at Coinstar’s coin-counting kiosks.
Amazon may have purchased San Francisco-based GoPago Inc., a mobile payment startup whose technology enables merchants to process card payments so consumers can order and pay ahead with a smartphone, skipping lines at the checkout, according reports from several media outlets.
La Caixa, the Barcelona, Spain-based financial institution, has announced the launch of an NFC-based mobile payments service in partnership with Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Visa Europe.
A years-long court battle over interchange fees has reached another milestone, but appears to be far from settled.
Blackhawk Network Inc., a global prepaid payment network, last Friday announced its first commercial agreement in Africa, which will enable it to offer iTunes Gift Cards in South Africa through a partnership with Johannesburg-based distributor Opengate, a subsidiary of Value+Nettwork.
Vodafone Germany last Friday began its German launch of a mobile wallet with the integrated Vodafone SmartPass Visa payment application.
One month after going live throughout the U.S., the Isis mobile wallet has added Wells Fargo to its roster of bank partners, enabling holders of the bank’s Visa consumer credit cards to load their cards onto the NFC-based wallet.
Moving to improve and clarify payroll card industry practices, MasterCard today released new standards requiring all employers and payroll card providers involved in offering MasterCard-branded payroll cards to meet specific protocols for consumer choice and transparency
A new law in California will prohibit overdraft fees and extend other protections to recipients of state unemployment and government assistance who have their benefit funds deposited onto a prepaid card.
Cachet Financial Solutions, a Minneapolis-based provider of remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions, will be providing consumers in Latin America with RDC services for YEPEX, the mobile banking network of YellowPepper Mobile Financial Network.
The U.S. financially underserved market was worth $89 billion last year, according to a new study from the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI).
PreCash is expanding its Evolve Money online and mobile bill pay app by enabling customers to pay bills using debit and prepaid cards, in addition to cash.
Square Inc. has stuffed its stocking in recent days with a few key acquisitions primed to enrich consumers’ use of the mobile payments app for everyday activities.
Bank of Beirut has gone live on Misys Sophis Value platform, which the bank says will help it increase its STP rate, manage trade repository and cross-asset collateral and margin, and better interact with Lebanon’s other banks.
Gift cards will rule again as consumers’ top holiday gift choice in 2013, and a shortened holiday shopping season could benefit increasingly popular e-gift cards.
Littleton, Colo.-based card producer CPI Card Group has received a Center of Excellence award by the Smart Card Alliance.
Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology provider, recently announced that its Popmoney P2P payments service has taken top honors at the Mobile Money Global Awards and the Mobile Excellence Awards.
Paul Hastings LLP has placed second this year among the top 40 most innovative law firms in the Financial Times’ “U.S. Innovative Lawyers” report.
PayPal is bullish on Bitcoin, negative on NFC and ready to begin a major marketing push of the company’s buildup of mobile payment technology at the POS, according to David Marcus, PayPal president.
Clinkle Corp., the darling of investors and the media in recent months, appears to have hit some potholes on the road to launching a payment app that reportedly enables users to transfer funds between individuals and groups, and emphasizes social media.
Digital gift card provider Kiind has found a way to make hay from the fact that about 10 percent of gift cards go unredeemed.
Mobile carrier billing company Fortumo today is launching mobile operator billing in Indonesia, the fourth-largest country in the world by population.
Turkey’s Garanti Bank and mobile operator Turkcell have partnered with Visa Europe in a deal aimed at bringing the Turkcell mobile wallet to more consumers in Turkey.
Surveys suggest that U.S. and U.K. consumers don’t know much about NFC and don’t care.
The retailer-led mobile payment consortium Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) today announced ExxonMobil has joined its ranks, along with Rite Aid Corp., supermarket chain Giant Eagle and the convenience store chain Kum & Go.
Last week was a busy one for the payday loan industry. On Tuesday, New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) sent subpoenas to 16 online “lead generation” firms suspected of deceptive or misleading marketing of illegal, online payday loans in New York. On Wednesday, two new reports were released examining small-dollar lending.
Year-over-year retail sales have been brisk between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in the U.S. and Canada, according to payment processors First Data Corp. and Moneris Solutions Corp.
The Federal Reserve has issued guidance on managing outsourcing risk to assist financial institutions with understanding and managing the risks associated with outsourcing bank activity to a service provider.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won’t issue its proposed rules for GPR prepaid cards until May of 2014, according to the agency’s updated rulemaking agenda.
JP Morgan Chase & Co. has notified 465,000 holders of prepaid cards issued by the bank that some of their personal data may have been exposed to hackers after its systems were breached last summer.
Mobile POS provider PayAnywhere has struck a deal to enable its merchant clients to accept payments via PayPal’s payment card.
Chinese officials today have banned financial institutions in the country from using Bitcoin as currency, asserting that bitcoins are merely virtual goods that have no status as legal tender.
